A massive explosion Tuesday at a popular fireworks market near Mexico City killed at least 31 people and injured 70 others.
The San Pablito market in the city of Tultepec, about 30 kilometers north of the capital, was packed with shoppers buying fireworks for the Christmas and New Year holidays.
The mass of pyrotechnics at the site sent huge streams of smoke into the air as they went off and people tried to run for safety. Most of the stalls in the market were destroyed.
The federal attorney general’s office said six explosions caused the destruction, and that it had opened an investigation into violations of fire and explosives laws and who was responsible.
This image made from video shows an explosion ripping through the San Pablito fireworks’ market in Tultepec, Mexico, Dec. 20, 2016.
Emergency crews needed to wait several hours for the site to be safe enough for them to go in and look for victims.
Eruviel Avila, the governor of the state of Mexico, said forensics teams are having to use genetic analysis to try to identify some of the dead.
Of the injured, 21 had been released from the hospital by early Wednesday.
Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto used Twitter to send his condolences to the families of those killed and to wish a speedy recovery for the injured.
Blasts and fires at the same market destroyed a number of stalls in 2005 and 2006.
