Xi mourns casualties of Mexico blast

Official says the death toll of fuel pipeline explosion has reached 73

TLAHUELILPAN, Mexico - Chinese President Xi Jinping on Sunday sent a message of condolence to his Mexican counterpart Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador over a deadly pipeline blast that has killed at least 73 people.

In his message, Xi said he was shocked to learn of a fuel pipeline explosion in central Mexico that has caused heavy casualties.

On behalf of the Chinese government and people, as well as in his own name, Xi extended his deep condolence to the victims and sympathy to their families and the injured people.

Xi said he wishes a quick recovery for the injured, and expressed China's readiness to provide necessary help.

The explosion and fire in central Mexico killed at least 73 people after hundreds swarmed to the site of an illegal fuel-line tap to gather gasoline amid a government crackdown on fuel theft, Hidalgo State Governor Omar Fayad said.

The blast - which Fayad said injured 74 people - occurred near Tlahuelilpan, a town of 20,000 people about an hour's drive north of Mexico City.

As soldiers guarded the devastated, still-smoking scene, forensic specialists in white suits worked among the blackened corpses - many frozen in the unnatural positions in which they had fallen - and grim-eyed civilians stepped cautiously along in a desperate search for missing relatives.

The pungent smell of fuel hung in the air. Fragments of burned clothing were strewn through the charred brush.

When the forensic workers began attempting to load corpses into vans to be transported to funeral homes, about 30 villagers tried to stop them. They demanded their relatives' bodies, saying funeral homes were too expensive. The bodies were ultimately taken to a morgue, authorities said.

On Friday, hundreds of people had gathered in an almost festive atmosphere in a field where the duct had been perforated by fuel thieves and gasoline spewed 20 feet into the air.

State oil company Pemex, said the pipeline, which supplies much of central Mexico with fuel, had just reopened after being shut since Dec 23 and that it had been breached 10 times over three months.

President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, who took office only weeks ago, traveled to the scene early on Saturday.

"I am deeply saddened by the suffering in Tlahuelilpan," Lopez Obrador wrote on Twitter. He called on his "whole government" to extend assistance.

He also said the attorney general's office will investigate whether the explosion was intentional - caused by an individual or group - or whether the fireball occurred due to the inherent risk of clandestine fuel extraction. He called on townspeople to give testimony not only about Friday's events in Hidalgo, but about the entire black-market chain of fuel theft.

"I believe in the people, I trust in the people, and I know that with these painful, regrettable lessons, the people will also distance themselves from these practices," he said.

The US Secretary of Homeland Security, Kirstjen Nielsen, tweeted that her department "stands ready to assist the first responders and the Mexican government in any way possible".

Video taken in the aftermath showed screaming people fleeing the scene as an enormous fire lit up the night sky.

"I went just to see what was happening, and then the explosion happened. I rushed to help people," said Fernando Garcia, 47. "I had to claw through pieces of people who had already been burned to bits."

The tragedy comes during a highly publicized federal government war on fuel theft, a problem that cost Mexico an estimated $3 billion in 2017.

Federal and state firefighters and ambulances run by oil company Pemex rushed to help victims with burns and take the injured to hospitals.

Afp - Ap - Xinhua

(China Daily 01/21/2019 page11)