Gas explosion at Mexico children's hospital kills 2, injures 22 children

Mexico City: A gas explosion ripped through a children’s hospital in Mexico City on Thursday, killing at least two people and injuring dozens, including 22 children, officials said.

Rescuers toiled through the rubble of the Maternity and Children’s Hospital in the Cuajimalpa borough to look for people who were trapped following the blast, said civil protection chief Fausto Lugo.

City mayor Miguel Angel Mancera told MVS Radio that the area was evacuated “for safety because a lot of the people are babies in the crib area.”

Television images showed people with bloodied faces being carried to ambulances. Around 40 percent of the hospital was destroyed.

A gas tanker truck blew up outside the building, officials said. Lugo said that the explosion “very likely” happened when a fuel pipe broke, but that the cause was still under investigation.

Officials said two people died, including one woman found under the collapsed structure.

Mancera said at least 32 adults and 22 children were injured, though none were in serious condition. Most were hit by shattered glass. Lugo said 37 people were transferred to other hospitals.

Mexico has been hit by other gas explosion tragedies in recent years.

In May 2013, 25 people died when a gas tanker’s container came loose on a highway north of Mexico City, setting nearby homes and cars on fire.

Last year, three people died in the northeastern state of Tamaulipas when a gas leak caused an explosion in a shopping center.

AFP