A huge blaze erupted at a Mexican gas plant near the US border on Tuesday, killing at least 26 people and injuring others in the worst accident in two years for the state-run Pemex energy firm.
Television images showed tall flames and plumes of smoke billowing from the site, located near Reynosa, a city in the northeastern state of Tamaulipas that sits across from the Texas town of McAllen.
“Regrettably, the number of workers who died in this morning’s accident in Tamaulipas rose to 26,” the company said on Twitter, as the toll more than doubled from the 10 deaths that had been reported earlier in the day.
Four of the dead were Pemex workers while the 22 others were contractors, the company said.
Pemex did not report any injuries but a Red Cross worker told reporters that 40 people had been taken to a hospital, with half of them suffering from first- and second-degree burns.
The state monopoly said experts were investigating the cause of the fire -- the third incident at a Pemex facility in little over a month.
Pemex said in a statement that the fire broke out at 10.45am. Workers shut off valves while firefighters spent two hours extinguishing the blaze.