One person was killed and 15 others were injured when an oil pipeline exploded on Sunday in Mexico’s central state of Puebla.
Mexico’s President Andrés Manuel López Obrador confirmed the death and injuries in a tweet on Sunday. He added that about 1,400 rescue workers had been deployed to assist with the incident.
Puebla’s governor, Miguel Barbosa, said an explosion was sparked when the pipeline of state oil firm Petroleos Mexicanos (Pemex) had a gas leak as a result of an unlawful fuel tap, according to Reuters.
Gas leak reports prompted evacuations before three explosions destroyed 30 to 50 homes in the area, Reuters added.
Reuters also reported that five of the 15 injuries were serious, and 2,000 people had been evacuated from the area.
Barbosa added that a “tragedy of enormous proportions” had been prevented by the prompt evacuations.
Fuel theft has caused several tragic accidents in Mexico. In 2019, more than 100 people died after a Pemex pipeline explosion in Hidalgo following an illegal pipeline tap.
This summer, a fire erupted in the Gulf of Mexico on a Pemex platform that was due to a leak in a submarine pipeline.