Jan. 23 (UPI) — The death toll from last Friday’s gigantic pipeline explosion in central Mexico has risen to 93.
The number of dead has continued to climb since the incident as victims succumb to their injuries, the Minister of Health Jorge Alcocer Varela said Tuesday in a press conference, News 4 Europe reported.
“Continuing with this important but sad census, (on Monday) we have 89 deceased patients and 51 hospitalized. In recent hours, four more have died,” Alcocer Varela said.
This has reduced the number of hospitalized patients to 46. One child has been transferred to a Texas hospital.
The Friday blast occurred around 7 p.m. as people were trying to illegally steal fuel from the Tuxpan-Tula pipeline.
Between 600 and 800 people were at the site in Tlahuelilpan, a town about 80 miles north of Mexico City, with containers to collect the fuel when the blast occurred.
Mexico’s attorney general will conduct an investigation into who is responsible for the blast, which is one of the worst pipeline tragedies the country has seen in recent years, Xinhua reported.
The explosion occurred as the country struggles to deal with the ongoing gas shortages that has seen some 80 percent of all gas stations in the city of Guadalajara closed, Mexico News Daily reported, adding that the federal government said that the gas shortages in more than 10 states is the result of President Andres Manual Lopez Obrador’s attempt to clamp down on rampant gasoline theft.
Since taking office Dec. 1, Lopez Obrador has deployed thousands of army and police and closed several pipelines in this effort.
However, gasoline theft is still ongoing as a pipeline between Salamanca, Guanajuato and Guadalajara reopened Sunday only to be illegally tapped three times that day, Mexico Daily reported
A study presented by Pemex to congress in October said that several large criminal and drug-trafficking organizations, as well as communities, fuel pump owners and ex-employees of the state oil company, have been involved in the stealing of the nation’s fuel through puncturing pipelines, which can cause the fuel to combust.
The country lost approximately $3.4 billion in 2018 from fuel theft.
