At least 19 people were killed and 40 more were injured in an explosion at a fireworks warehouse in Mexico on Thursday. Photo by STR/EPA

July 5 (UPI) -- At least 19 people were killed in a pair of explosions at a fireworks warehouse in Mexico on Thursday, local police said.

Several manufacturers, at least four firefighters and two police officers who rushed to the scene to help were killed, while up to 40 people were injured in the two blasts that took place in the town of Tultepec, authorities said.


At least four workshops also were destroyed by the blasts. A fire that triggered the explosion was brought under control.

Tultepec -- located 20 miles from Mexico City -- is known as Mexico's pyrotechnic capital and more than 40 people died of blasts in the town in 2016.

Mexico state official Alejandro Ozuna Rivero said he would conduct an "exhaustive review of all permits and the way they are being granted" to determine whether some factories should be closed temporarily.

Some called for the market to be closed following the explosion in 2016, but Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto instead pledged to rebuild it with new safety measures in place.

Nieto offered condolences for those killed in the explosions.

"I deeply regret the loss of life in the explosion that occurred in Tultepec," he wrote on Twitter. "I send my condolences to the families of the deceased and I wish prompt recovery to those who were injured."