22 dead in gas tanker explosion near Mexico City

MEXICO CITY (AP) — A natural gas tanker truck lost control, hit a center divider and exploded on a highway lined by homes in the Mexico City suburb of Ecatepec early Tuesday, killing at least 22 people and injuring nearly three dozen, authorities said.

Officials at the Citizen Safety Department of Mexico State, which surrounds the capital, did not rule out the possibility the death toll could rise. At least a dozen people remained hospitalized late Tuesday, several of them in critical condition.

Gov. Eruviel Avila said late Tuesday that 22 people were known dead in a letter to Pope Francis, with whom he was supposed to meet at the Vatican on Wednesday. Avila said he was returning to Mexico instead.

The state safety department's spokesman, Cesar Diaz, said emergency workers would continue searching through the night in the charred remains of vehicles and homes built near the highway on the northern edge of the metropolis.

Residents pitched in to rescue people from the wreckage of the 5:30 a.m. explosion, crushed and burned cars and shattered homes. Television footage showed plumes of flame shooting out of homes in the pre-dawn darkness.

A huge piece of the truck's gas tank was blown 50 yards by the blast, landing atop the wall of a house and cars parked outside. A number of pigs, goats and other farm animals that were kept on patios were killed.

"It was thunderous sound. I thought we were all going to die," said Rita Enriquez, 42, a housewife who lives nearby. "When we ran out, we saw a car on fire and flames everywhere. Smoke was pouring all over the freeway."

Mario Lopez, 43, a mechanic, lives in the house hit by the tank and managed to escape with his three sons after being awakened by the blast.

"All the windows broke to the inside. We got down and left crawling," said Lopez, who lost a brother, a sister, three nephews and a sister-in-law who all lived in separate units of the three-story home. He said 12 people in all died in the house. "Everything was in flames," he said.

Enriquez said five of her relatives were gravely injured in their concrete slab home along the road, though she had no other details as she waited for word outside Magdalena Las Salinas Hospital in Mexico City.

Her 15-year-old niece, Wendy Garrido, who was pregnant, was forced to give birth after the explosion, she said. They survived but both were in intensive care, Health Secretary Cesar Gomez said.

The pre-dawn disaster exposed two recurrent public safety issues in Mexico: extremely heavy trucks that are frequently involved in serious accidents, and the construction of improvised homes just feet away from major highways.

Some of the cinderblock homes hit by the huge explosion were just steps from the busy, eight-lane highway. Other homes were mere shacks, built of sheet tin.

Lopez said the highway recently had been widened, bringing traffic perilously closer to their dwellings.

"They never thought a car could hit them or an explosion of this magnitude," said Maribel Juarez, the cousin of another family killed in the explosion. "Now we have to bury their coffins and our family members are never going to return."

The driver, Juan Olivares, 36, was heading south from the city of Pachuca to Mexico City in a tractor that was hauling two gas tanks on tandem trailers, said Jose Luis Cervantes, an assistant state prosecutor. He said the vehicle belonged to the Termogas company.

Cervantes said the tractor hit a center divider and broke apart, with one tank flying into a house and exploding, killing 15 people, and another part of a tank hitting a separate house, killing four.

State security officials counted 33 people with various injuries.

The driver, who was under detention while being treated at a hospital, could face manslaughter and property damage charges, the prosecutor said.

"We just pulled burned people, and put out the fire in the houses, but we don't really know what happened," said Rogelio Martinez, a resident.

Emergency personnel at the scene pulled dead from their homes, some apparently burned in their beds. An Associated Press journalist saw rescue workers carry three bodies, covered with white sheets, from one home.

One small passenger van had been totally gutted by flames and tossed against the wall of one of the many improvised houses next to the highway.

Hundreds of police, ambulance drivers, paramedics, soldiers and firefighters gathered at the scene.

Pablo Bedolla, the mayor of Ecatepec, a mainly working-class area, said 20 homes and one school had been damaged by the blast. The explosion happened before class hours, so there were no apparent injuries in the school.

"People are very shaken, above all because of the injuries and the large number of dead," Bedolla said. "I've spoken with the families of the victims, and they are just sobbing."

The explosion closed the highway between Mexico City and Pachuca for hours.

Speaking in Mexico City, President Enrique Pena Nieto suggested something would have to be done to separate major highways from poor neighborhoods.

"I have instructed the Transportation Department ... to review the safety conditions on this federal highway in places where structures have been built on the right of way, so that in the near future, work can be carried out to make it safer," Pena Nieto said.

Often in Mexico, squatters settle on rights of way, the strips of land on either side of a highway or railway line that are intended to be buffer zones. The gradual spread of shacks creates neighborhoods that are inherently unsafe.

This highway, however, was recently expanded, so it was unclear whether the land occupied by homes was legally settled.

The Mexican government also appears to have realized it has a big problem with over-weight trucks. Such trucks, often unsafely operated, have been involved in a number of spectacular, deadly accidents in recent years.

On Tuesday, the Transportation Department announced it had set up a panel of experts to study the issue of maximum allowable weights, "to set out opinions on eventually changing the weight standards, or drawing up a new set of rules."

One year ago, the Mexican government announced measures to tighten inspections and lower maximum allowed weights for some freight trucks after protests over a string of deadly accidents involving double-trailer trucks like the one involved in Tuesday' disaster.

Mexico has allowed trucks to travel highways with loads of up to 80 metric tons and lengths exceeding 100 feet, compared to a U.S. limit of 80,000 pounds, or 40 tons, on interstate highways.

In April 2012, a double-trailer truck on a two-lane road in the Gulf coast state of Veracruz lost its rear trailer, which slammed into a bus carrying farm workers, killing 43 people.

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Associated Press writers Mark Stevenson and Gloria Perez contributed to this report.

___

AP video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jXv190oaFVw

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18 dead in gas tanker explosion near Mexico City

MEXICO CITY (AP) — A gas tanker truck exploded on a highway in the Mexico City suburb of Ecatepec early Tuesday, killing at least 18 people and injuring three dozen, according to the Citizen Safety Department of Mexico State, which surrounds Mexico City.

Officials did not rule out the possibility the death toll could rise more as emergency workers continued sifting through the charred remains of vehicles and homes built near the highway on the northern edge of the metropolis.

Residents pitched in to rescue people from the wreckage of crushed and burned cars and shattered homes. Television footage showed plumes of flame shooting out of homes in the pre-dawn darkness.

"We just pulled burned people, and put out the fire in the houses, but we don't really know what happened," said Rogelio Martinez, a resident of the neighborhood where the crash occurred.

A huge piece of the truck's gas tank was blown 50 yards by the force of the blast, landing atop the wall of a house and cars parked outside. Charred wreckage of cars littered the blast site.

Hundreds of police, ambulance drivers, paramedics, soldiers and firefighters gathered at the scene, where a giant plume of smoke rose over the area after the explosion around 5 a.m. Tuesday local time.

Pablo Bedolla, the mayor of Ecatepec, a mainly working-class area, said 20 homes and one school had been damaged in the blast. The explosion happened before class hours, so there were no apparent injuries in the school, but emergency personnel at the scene reported pulling dead victims from their homes, some apparently burned in their beds.

"People are very shaken, above all because of the injuries and the large number of dead," said Bedolla. "I've spoken with the families of the victims, and they are just sobbing."

The explosion closed the highway between Mexico City and Pachuca for hours.

The pre-dawn accident exposed two recurrent public safety issues in Mexico: extremely heavy trucks that are frequently involved in serious accidents, and the construction of improvised homes just feet away from major highways.

Some of the cinderblock homes hit by the massive explosion were just steps away from the busy, four-lane highway.

Mexican trucks, often overloaded or unsafely operated, have been involved in a number of spectacular, deadly accidents in recent years.

The truck involved in Tuesday's accident was a double tanker: one cab pulling two gas tanks. The driver was injured in the crash, and was under detention at a local hospital.

One year ago, the Mexican government announced measures to tighten inspections and lower maximum allowed weights for freight trucks after protests over a string of deadly accidents involving double-trailer trucks.

Mexico had allowed trucks to travel two-lane roads with loads of up to 80 metric tons and lengths exceeding 100 feet, compared to a U.S. limit of is 80,000 pounds (40 tons) on interstate highways. It subsequently reduced that limit by about 4.5 tons.

In April 2012, a double-trailer truck on a two-lane road in the Gulf coast state of Veracruz lost its rear trailer, which slammed into a bus carrying farm workers, killing 43 people.

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19 dead in gas tanker explosion near Mexico City

MEXICO CITY (AP) — A gas tanker truck exploded on a highway lined with homes in the Mexico City suburb of Ecatepec early Tuesday, killing at least 19 people and injuring three dozen, according to the Citizen Safety Department of Mexico State, which surrounds Mexico City.

Officials did not rule out the possibility the death toll could rise more as emergency workers continued sifting through the charred remains of vehicles and homes built just steps near the highway on the northern edge of the metropolis.

Residents pitched in to rescue people from the wreckage of crushed and burned cars and shattered working class homes of cinderblock, brick and concrete. Television footage showed plumes of flame shooting out of homes in the pre-dawn darkness.

Authorities did not immediately report a cause for the explosion.

"We just pulled burned people, and put out the fire in the houses, but we don't really know what happened," said Rogelio Martinez, a resident of the neighborhood where the crash occurred.

Emergency personnel at the scene pulled dead victims from their homes, some apparently burned in their beds. An Associated Press journalist at the scene saw rescue workers carry three bodies, covered with white sheets, from one home.

A huge piece of the truck's gas tank was blown 50 yards by the force of the blast, landing atop the wall of a house and cars parked outside. Charred wreckage of cars littered the blast site. A number of pigs and other farm animals that were kept on patios were killed.

One small passenger van had been totally gutted by flames and tossed against the wall of one of the many improvised houses built next to the highway.

Hundreds of police, ambulance drivers, paramedics, soldiers and firefighters gathered at the scene, where a giant plume of smoke rose over the area after the explosion around 5 a.m. Tuesday local time.

Pablo Bedolla, the mayor of Ecatepec, a mainly working-class area, said 20 homes and one school had been damaged in the blast. The explosion happened before class hours, so there were no apparent injuries in the school.

"People are very shaken, above all because of the injuries and the large number of dead," said Bedolla. "I've spoken with the families of the victims, and they are just sobbing."

The explosion closed the highway between Mexico City and Pachuca for hours.

The pre-dawn accident exposed two recurrent public safety issues in Mexico: extremely heavy trucks that are frequently involved in serious accidents, and the construction of improvised homes just feet away from major highways.

Some of the cinderblock homes hit by the massive explosion were just steps away from the busy, eight-lane highway. Other homes were mere shacks, built of sheet tin.

Speaking in Mexico City, President Enrique Pena Nieto suggested something would have to be done to separate major highways from poor neighborhoods.

"I have instructed the Transportation Department ... to review the safety conditions on this federal highway in places where structures have been built on the right of way, so that in the near future, work can be carried out to make it safer," Pena Nieto said.

Often in Mexico, squatters settle on the right of way, the strip of land on either side of a highway or railway line, and put shacks there, gradually building up neighborhoods that are inherently unsafe, because they are built in what was intended to be a buffer zone.

This highway, however, was recently expanded, so it was unclear whether the land was legally settled.

Mexican trucks, often overloaded or unsafely operated, have been involved in a number of spectacular, deadly accidents in recent years.

The truck involved in Tuesday's accident was a double tanker: one cab pulling two gas tanks. The driver was injured in the crash, and was under detention at a local hospital.

One year ago, the Mexican government announced measures to tighten inspections and lower maximum allowed weights for freight trucks after protests over a string of deadly accidents involving double-trailer trucks.

Mexico had allowed trucks to travel two-lane roads with loads of up to 80 metric tons and lengths exceeding 100 feet, compared to a U.S. limit of is 80,000 pounds (40 tons) on interstate highways. It subsequently reduced that limit by about 4.5 tons.

In April 2012, a double-trailer truck on a two-lane road in the Gulf coast state of Veracruz lost its rear trailer, which slammed into a bus carrying farm workers, killing 43 people.

___

Associated Press writer Mark Stevenson contributed to this report.

View the original article here

20 dead in gas tanker explosion near Mexico City

MEXICO CITY (AP) — A natural gas tanker truck lost control, hit a center divider and exploded on a highway lined by homes in the Mexico City suburb of Ecatepec early Tuesday, killing at least 20 people and injuring nearly three dozen, authorities said.

Officials at the Citizen Safety Department of Mexico State, which surrounds the capital, did not rule out the possibility the death toll could rise as emergency workers continued sifting through the charred remains of vehicles and homes built near the highway on the northern edge of the metropolis.

Residents pitched in to rescue people from the wreckage of the 5:30 a.m. explosion, crushed and burned cars and shattered homes. Television footage showed plumes of flame shooting out of homes in the pre-dawn darkness.

A huge piece of the truck's gas tank was blown 50 yards by the blast, landing atop the wall of a house and cars parked outside. A number of pigs and other farm animals that were kept on patios were killed.

"It was thunderous sound. I thought we were all going to die," said Rita Enriquez, 42, a housewife who lives nearby. "When we ran out, we saw a car on fire and flames everywhere. Smoke was pouring all over the freeway."

Mario Lopez, 43, a mechanic, lives in the house hit by the tank and managed to escape with his three sons after being awakened by the blast.

"All the windows broke to the inside. We got down and left crawling," said Lopez, who lost a brother, a sister, three nephews and a sister-in-law who all lived in separate units of the three-story home. He said 12 people in all died in the house. "Everything was in flames," he said.

Enriquez said five of her relatives were gravely injured in their concrete slab home along the road, though she had no other details as she waited for word outside Magdalena Las Salinas Hospital in Mexico City.

Her 15-year-old niece, Wendy Garrido, who was pregnant, was forced to give birth after the explosion, she said. They survived but both were in intensive care, Health Secretary Cesar Gomez said.

The pre-dawn disaster exposed two recurrent public safety issues in Mexico: extremely heavy trucks that are frequently involved in serious accidents, and the construction of improvised homes just feet away from major highways.

Some of the cinderblock homes hit by the huge explosion were just steps from the busy, eight-lane highway. Other homes were mere shacks, built of sheet tin.

Lopez said the highway recently had been widened, bringing traffic perilously closer to their dwellings.

"They never thought a car could hit them or an explosion of this magnitude," said Maribel Juarez, the cousin of another family killed in the explosion. "Now we have to bury their coffins and our family members are never going to return."

The driver, Juan Olivares, 36, was heading south from the city of Pachuca to Mexico City in a tractor that was hauling two gas tanks on tandem trailers, said Jose Luis Cervantes, an assistant state prosecutor. He said the vehicle belonged to the Termogas company.

Cervantes said the tractor hit a center divider and broke apart, with one tank flying into a house and exploding, killing 15 people, and another part of a tank hitting a separate house, killing four. He did not say where the 20th person died.

The driver, who was under detention while being treated at a hospital, could face manslaughter and property damage charges, the prosecutor said.

"We just pulled burned people, and put out the fire in the houses, but we don't really know what happened," said Rogelio Martinez, a resident.

State security officials counted 33 injured. More than 20 had been hospitalized, eight of them in grave condition, said Gomez, the health secretary.

Emergency personnel at the scene pulled dead from their homes, some apparently burned in their beds. An Associated Press journalist saw rescue workers carry three bodies, covered with white sheets, from one home.

One small passenger van had been totally gutted by flames and tossed against the wall of one of the many improvised houses next to the highway.

Hundreds of police, ambulance drivers, paramedics, soldiers and firefighters gathered at the scene.

Pablo Bedolla, the mayor of Ecatepec, a mainly working-class area, said 20 homes and one school had been damaged by the blast. The explosion happened before class hours, so there were no apparent injuries in the school.

"People are very shaken, above all because of the injuries and the large number of dead," Bedolla said. "I've spoken with the families of the victims, and they are just sobbing."

The explosion closed the highway between Mexico City and Pachuca for hours.

Speaking in Mexico City, President Enrique Pena Nieto suggested something would have to be done to separate major highways from poor neighborhoods.

"I have instructed the Transportation Department ... to review the safety conditions on this federal highway in places where structures have been built on the right of way, so that in the near future, work can be carried out to make it safer," Pena Nieto said.

Often in Mexico, squatters settle on rights of way, the strips of land on either side of a highway or railway line that are intended to be buffer zones. The gradual spread of shacks creates neighborhoods that are inherently unsafe.

This highway, however, was recently expanded, so it was unclear whether the land occupied by homes was legally settled.

The Mexican government also appears to have realized it has a big problem with over-weight trucks. Such trucks, often unsafely operated, have been involved in a number of spectacular, deadly accidents in recent years.

On Tuesday, the Transportation Department announced it had set up a panel of experts to study the issue of maximum allowable weights, "to set out opinions on eventually changing the weight standards, or drawing up a new set of rules."

One year ago, the Mexican government announced measures to tighten inspections and lower maximum allowed weights for some freight trucks after protests over a string of deadly accidents involving double-trailer trucks like the one involved in Tuesday' disaster.

Mexico has allowed trucks to travel highways with loads of up to 80 metric tons and lengths exceeding 100 feet, compared to a U.S. limit of 80,000 pounds, or 40 tons, on interstate highways.

In April 2012, a double-trailer truck on a two-lane road in the Gulf coast state of Veracruz lost its rear trailer, which slammed into a bus carrying farm workers, killing 43 people.

___

Associated Press writer Mark Stevenson contributed to this report.

___

AP video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jXv190oaFVw

View the original article here

At least 16 killed in northern Nigeria explosion

KANO, Nigeria (AP) — At least 16 people were killed in an explosion that hit a bus station in Kano in northern Nigeria, a medic said Monday in the latest violence to hit this West African nation.

The medic, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he is not authorized to speak to the press, said at least 16 dead and dozens more injured people were brought to the Murtala Muhammad Specialist Hospital after Monday's blast.

The blast occurred Monday evening in Sabon Gari area, a Christian enclave in the predominantly Muslim city of Kano.

It was not clear if there had been one or multiple explosions, said National Emergency Management Agency spokesman Yushau Shuaib. He could not say if the explosion was caused by a bomb or if it was accidental.

However, residents' suspicion fell on the radical Islamic sect, Boko Haram, which has waged a campaign of bombings across Nigeria's north. Top officials also believed the explosion was caused by Islamic extremists.

"The federal government will not be stampeded, for any reason whatsoever, into abandoning its unrelenting war against terrorists in the country," said Nigerian presidential spokesman Reuben Abati in reaction to the Kano blast.

The deadly explosion came hours after an attack blamed on Boko Haram killed a teacher and injured three students in the northeastern Nigerian of Maiduguri, the spiritual home of Boko Haram. Local military spokesman Sagir Musa said in a statement the security forces killed three sect members in a counterattack.

As the extremists' threat grows, the Nigeria government has been unable to stop the killings, even in main centers such as Kano.

Monday's attack comes more than a year after the Jan. 20, 2012 coordinated attacks by extremists on Kano which left more than 150 people dead.

Boko Haram's reach appears to be extending to neighboring countries.

Earlier Monday, a video emerged showing a French family who were kidnapped in Cameroon and who said they were being held by Boko Haram. The family, kidnapped on Feb. 19, includes four children.

President Goodluck Jonathan said in a statement late Monday that "the Nigerian Government will continue to do all that is required to ensure the safety of lives and property, including continued collaboration with local and international partners and stakeholders to check the menace of terrorism."

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13 dead, dozens hurt in Mexico fireworks explosion

MEXICO CITY (AP) — A truck loaded with fireworks exploded during a religious procession in a rural village in central Mexico, killing at least 13 people and injuring 154, authorities said.

The blast Friday was set off when a firework malfunctioned and landed on the truck, igniting the fireworks it carried, officials said

"They were in a procession, they were shooting off rockets and it exploded and fell onto the other ones," said Jose Mateo Morales, director of the Tlaxcala state civil protection department. "It was very serious."

Human remains and burned clothes were spread around a 100-yard (100-meter) radius, including on rooftops, a photographer at the scene said.

The victims were marching in an annual procession in honor of Jesus Christ, the patron of Jesus Tepactepec, a village of about 1,000 people, Mateo Morales said.

At least one child was among the victims, Tlaxcala Gov. Mariano Gonzalez said.

Helicopters, dozens of ambulances and soldiers from the area's military base rushed to the village, about 70 miles (112 kilometers) east of Mexico City.

Tlaxcala Bishop Francisco Moreno said he toured the scene of the blast and went to hospitals to visit the wounded. "I blessed all who died and said a prayer for them," the bishop said in his Twitter account.

Fireworks are a typical feature of Mexican holidays and religious celebrations but they often are manufactured, stored and transported under unsafe conditions, and the country sees periodic fatal explosions.

Jesus Tepactepec is known for its handicrafts manufacturing, including baskets and wood figures, and its annual religious celebration draws artisans from nearby towns who come to sell their wares.

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Car explosion in north Mali's Kidal kills 2

BAMAKO, Mali (AP) — A resident in the north Malian town of Kidal says a car exploded inside a garage, killing the driver and a security guard.

Mossa Ansary said the explosion on Thursday took place about 800 meters (875 yards) from a French military base. It was unclear if it was a suicide car bombing.

French and Chadian forces are patrolling the city of Kidal, though it remains unclear if the northern administrative capital is secure.

A Mali military spokesman says that late Wednesday Islamic extremists attacked a Gao checkpoint and have made their way into the city. Capt. Daouda Diarra said that fighters with the Movement for Unity and Jihad in West Africa are trying to gain control of the mayor's office, but the army is trying to repel the attacks.

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