An explosion at a well-known fireworks market north of Mexico City has killed 27 people, according to local authorities.
Reuters news agency first reported the shocking casualty figure from the blaze in Tultepec early Tuesday evening.
Isidro Sanchez, the head of Tultepec emergency services, told Reuters that rescue workers still were searching the ruined marketplace and that the death toll remained preliminary.
Other news agencies such as the Associated Press, citing Mexico’s federal police, were reporting a death toll of nine so far.
According to reporters on the scene at the San Pablito Market, the stalls had been leveled and an acrid smell filled the air around 2:30 p.m.
“All of a sudden it started booming,” Crescencia Francisco Garcia of Mexico City old the Associated Press. “I and the others surrounding me all took off running.”
There was no immediate indication of the cause of the first blast, but once they began, according to National Civil Protection Coordinator Luis Felipe Puente, there was nothing that could be done to stop the gunpowder from exploding in chain reactions for hours.
• Victor Morton can be reached at vmorton@washingtontimes.com.
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