A gas truck driver and two assistants were arrested yesterday after a
deadly gas explosion levelled part of a maternity hospital in Mexico
City, killing at least three people and injuring dozens.
The blast occurred at about 7am Thursday, local time, with more than 100 people inside Cuajimalpa Maternity and Children's Hospital - minutes after a hose burst on a truck supplying gas to the building.
Maria Gaudulupe Hernandez is helped after collapsing near the damaged hospital. Photo / AP
Rescuers rushed from the rubble with babies in their arms and paramedics hauled bloodied victims out on stretchers. Two of the men in custody are hospitalised, and a third, with less serious injuries, was checked at a hospital.
Rescuers began smashing sledgehammers through fallen concrete hunting for those who might be trapped.
A nurse and a baby died in the blast and a second infant died later, authorities said.
More than 70 people were injured in the blast that caused the collapse of about three-quarters of the hospital.
Mayor Miguel Angel Mancera said some of the injured were about to be released from area hospitals, including mothers who suffered injuries shielding their children with their bodies.
A 25-year-old nurse and a newborn between 2 and 3 weeks old died at the scene and another infant died several hours later at another pediatric hospital, said Armando Ahued, the city's health secretary.
He said 21 babies had been injured. Nine of those and seven adults were in serious condition. Felicitas Hernandez, 35, wept as she frantically questioned people outside the wrecked building, hoping for word of her month-old baby, who had been in hospital since birth with respiratory problems.
"They wouldn't let me sleep with him," said Hernandez. Later, authorities told her to check at another hospital where she reported finding her baby uninjured.
The explosion occurred when a tanker truck was making a routine delivery of gas to the hospital kitchen and gas started to leak. Witnesses said the tanker workers struggled frantically for 15 or 20 minutes to repair the leak while a large cloud of gas formed.
"The hose broke. The two gas workers tried to stop it, but they were very nervous. They yelled for people to get out," said Laura Diaz Pacheco, a laboratory technician.
"Everyone's initial reaction was to go inside, away from the gas," she said.
Workers on the truck yelled: "Call the firefighters, call the firefighters!" said anaesthetist Agustin Herrera.
People started to evacuate the hospital and then came a devastating explosion that sent up an enormous fireball and plumes of dust and smoke. Officials said 110 people were inside the 35-bed hospital when the truck blew up.
"We avoided a much bigger tragedy because the oxygen tanks right beside [the area] didn't explode," Herrera said.
Homes next to the hospital had broken and cracked windows, and many neighbours ran to help evacuate victims from the debris, local resident Carlos Soria Rezendiz said.
The incident prompted tweets from President Enrique Pena Nieto, to Pope Francis, who wrote: "We are praying for the victims of the explosion in Cuajimalpa, Mexico."
The blast occurred at about 7am Thursday, local time, with more than 100 people inside Cuajimalpa Maternity and Children's Hospital - minutes after a hose burst on a truck supplying gas to the building.
Rescuers rushed from the rubble with babies in their arms and paramedics hauled bloodied victims out on stretchers. Two of the men in custody are hospitalised, and a third, with less serious injuries, was checked at a hospital.
Rescuers began smashing sledgehammers through fallen concrete hunting for those who might be trapped.
A nurse and a baby died in the blast and a second infant died later, authorities said.
Mayor Miguel Angel Mancera said some of the injured were about to be released from area hospitals, including mothers who suffered injuries shielding their children with their bodies.
A 25-year-old nurse and a newborn between 2 and 3 weeks old died at the scene and another infant died several hours later at another pediatric hospital, said Armando Ahued, the city's health secretary.
He said 21 babies had been injured. Nine of those and seven adults were in serious condition. Felicitas Hernandez, 35, wept as she frantically questioned people outside the wrecked building, hoping for word of her month-old baby, who had been in hospital since birth with respiratory problems.
"They wouldn't let me sleep with him," said Hernandez. Later, authorities told her to check at another hospital where she reported finding her baby uninjured.
The explosion occurred when a tanker truck was making a routine delivery of gas to the hospital kitchen and gas started to leak. Witnesses said the tanker workers struggled frantically for 15 or 20 minutes to repair the leak while a large cloud of gas formed.
"The hose broke. The two gas workers tried to stop it, but they were very nervous. They yelled for people to get out," said Laura Diaz Pacheco, a laboratory technician.
"Everyone's initial reaction was to go inside, away from the gas," she said.
Workers on the truck yelled: "Call the firefighters, call the firefighters!" said anaesthetist Agustin Herrera.
People started to evacuate the hospital and then came a devastating explosion that sent up an enormous fireball and plumes of dust and smoke. Officials said 110 people were inside the 35-bed hospital when the truck blew up.
"We avoided a much bigger tragedy because the oxygen tanks right beside [the area] didn't explode," Herrera said.
Homes next to the hospital had broken and cracked windows, and many neighbours ran to help evacuate victims from the debris, local resident Carlos Soria Rezendiz said.
The incident prompted tweets from President Enrique Pena Nieto, to Pope Francis, who wrote: "We are praying for the victims of the explosion in Cuajimalpa, Mexico."
