A Mexican government official says the death toll from a pipeline explosion in central Mexico has risen to 66.
Hidalgo state Gov. Omar Fayad tweeted the death toll early Saturday.
Over 85 other people were listed as missing a day after a massive fireball erupted at an illegal pipeline tap in the small town of Tlahuelilpan, about 100 kilometres north of Mexico City.
The tragedy came just three weeks after new President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador launched an offensive against fuel theft gangs drilling dangerous, illegal taps into pipelines an astounding 12,581 times in the first 10 months of 2018, an average of about 42 per day.
Illegal fuel theft a nearly $4B industry
Municipal health director Jorge Aguilar Lopez said: “What happened here should serve as an example for the whole nation to unite behind the fight that the president is carrying out against this ill.”
The explosion is likely to further intensify efforts to crackdown on the illegal taps and focus attention on Lopez Obrador’s fight against the $3.98 billion Cdn per-year illegal fuel theft industry.
“I urge the entire population not to be complicit in fuel theft,” Fayad said on Twitter Friday. “Apart from being illegal, it puts your life and those of your families at risk.”
The ruptured pipeline was near the Tula refinery of state oil firm Petroleos Mexicanos (Pemex), which in a statement blamed the incident on an illegal tap.
Crackdown has public backing
Separate television footage showed the pipeline gushing a fountain of fuel earlier in the day and dozens of people at the site trying to fill buckets and plastic containers.
Lopez Obrador expressed his concern on Twitter, and said he wanted “the entire government” to help people at the scene.
The explosion came just as the government wages a major crackdown on fuel theft. (Alfredo Estrella/AFP/Getty Images)
The president’s crackdown on theft has significant public backing, though his decision to turn off pipelines to thwart the thieves disrupted fuel supply in central Mexico and raised concern that the shortages could damage the economy.
Some users of social media responded to the explosion with anger, saying the fuel thieves only had themselves to blame.