VIDEO: Mexico Fireworks Market Explodes, At Least 31 Dead, Over 70 Injured

Update Wednesday 2:40 AM ET from the AFP– A massive explosion gutted Mexico’s biggest fireworks market, killing at least 31 people and injuring 72, the authorities said.An explosion at a fireworks market 25 miles north of Mexico City killed “at least two dozen” people on Tuesday, December 20.

The fireworks explosion occurred in Tultepec, Mexico, and was followed by a massive fire that consumed the market and the people who were unable to escape.

CNN reports that “pyrotechnics are a major industry in Tultepec,” and CBS News reports that “at least two dozen” people were killed when the explosion occurred. CBS quoted eyewitness accounts of individuals escaping surrounded by “people with burns and cuts, and lots of blood.”

Rodrigo Hernandez Lopez, a journalist in the area where the explosion occurred, indicated that “the governor of the State of Mexico, Eruviel Avila, said there were 29 people killed.”

The Associated Press reported:

Sirens wailed and a heavy scent of gunpowder lingered in the air after the afternoon blast at the market, where most of the fireworks stalls were completely leveled. The smoking, burned-out shells of vehicles ringed the perimeter, and first responders and local residents wearing blue masks over their mouths combed through the rubble and ash. Firefighters hosed down still-smoldering hotspots.