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Mexico City: A massive, multicoloured explosion decimated a fireworks market outside the Mexican capital on Tuesday, leaving it a charred wasteland and killing at least 31 people, with dozens more injured.
Television images showed a flurry of pyrotechnics exploding into the early afternoon sky as a giant plume of smoke rose above the market. Fireworks detonated in a peal of clattering bursts reminiscent of a war zone.
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A fire rips through a pyrotechnics market in Tultepec, Mexico killing at least 29 and injuring dozens more.
The blast was the third such explosion in just over a decade to hit the popular San Pablito marketplace in Tultepec, about 32 kilometres north of Mexico City. The detonations struck in the run-up to the busy Christmas holiday, when many Mexicans stock up on fireworks.
"People were crying everywhere and desperately running in all directions," said 20-year-old witness Cesar Carmona.
An explosion rips through the San Pablito fireworks market in Tultepec, Mexico. Photo: AP
Some 13 children suffered burns to over 90 per cent of their bodies and were being sent to Galveston in Texas for treatment, said Eruviel Avila, the governor of the State of Mexico where Tultepec is located.
Avila also vowed to find and punish those responsible for the blast and provide economic assistance to those who had lost their livelihoods.
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Isidro Sanchez, the head of Tultepec emergency services, said a lack of sufficient safety measures was the likely cause of the blast.
Videos from the scene showed people frantically fleeing, while aerial footage revealed blackened stalls and a flattened tangle of metal and wood.
A view from a drone of smoke billowing from the San Pablito market on Tuesday. Photo: AP
Over 80 per cent of the 300 stalls at the market were destroyed by the explosion, said state official Jose Manzur. Local media reported there were 300 tonnes of fireworks at the market at the time of the explosion.
Federico Juarez was present when the first explosion rocked the market.
A Mexico State policeman looks through the scorched ground of the open-air San Pablito fireworks market. Photo: AP
A blast struck the Tultepec fireworks market in September 2005 just before independence day celebrations, injuring many people. Almost a year later, another detonation gutted the area again.
Reuters
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