Truck carrying chemicals blows up, dozens killed

A truck carrying highly flammable chemicals blew up after colliding with another vehicle in northern Mexico, killing at least 34 people, including three reporters at the scene, state and federal officials said.

Authorities said the two vehicles crashed into each other on Sunday evening on a busy highway, drawing a crowd of curious onlookers as well as a small army of police, soldiers, emergency officials and journalists.

Shortly after the crowd arrived, the wreckage caught fire, and the chemicals blew up, sending a ball of fire into the sky that consumed nearby cars and left a 3-by-15-meter crater in the concrete, said Maximo Alberto Neri Lopez, a federal police official.