Death toll lowered in Mexico City hospital blast

John Bacon | USA TODAY

Show Caption Hide Caption Raw: Blast at Mexico City children's hospital A gas tank truck exploded outside a maternity and children's hospital in Mexico City on Thursday, collapsing much of it. Officials say dozens are injured, including several children. (Jan. 29)

A gas explosion devastated a maternity hospital in Mexico City on Thursday, killing at least three people, injuring dozens of others and setting off a scramble for survivors in the rubble.

More than 60 people were injured, 22 of them seriously, Mexico City Mayor Miguel Angel Mancera said at a news conference. The blast destroyed nearly three-quarters of the hospital, and authorities said more victims could be buried in the massive pile of smashed concrete and twisted metal.

The dead include a woman and a child. A second infant died Thursday night, The Associated Press reported. City officials earlier had said at least seven were dead.

CNN, citing the mayor, said a tanker was attempting to resupply propane gas to the kitchen of the Maternity and Children's Hospital of Cuajimalpa when a hose burst just after 7 a.m., causing a leak blamed for the blast. The truck belonged to Gas Express Nieto, which describes itself as one of the four major liquid propane gas providers in Mexico.

Witnesses said the tanker workers struggled frantically for 15 or 20 minutes to repair the leak while a large cloud of gas formed.

"The two gas workers tried to stop it, but they were very nervous. They yelled for people to get out," Laura Diaz Pacheco, a laboratory technician, told AP. "Everyone's initial reaction was to go inside, away from the gas. Maybe as many as 10 of us were able to get out ... The rest stayed inside."

The two workers and the driver were injured in the blast and are in custody, a city spokesman said.

The Red Cross said it provided 23 ambulances and more than 40 rescuers, CNN reported. The agency said it transported nine babies to area hospitals. Local borough chief Adrian Rubalcava told AP a lack of ambulances hampered the effort to transport the injured to a nearby hospital.

Jose Martinez, a spokesman for the Mexico City mayor, told NBC News 52 people were rescued and 25 of them were being treated.

"There's more people inside, under the bricks," he said.

President Enrique Peña Nieto said some firefighters were overcome by gas fumes. He tweeted condolences "to the injured and to the relatives of those who lost their lives this morning."

Ismael Garcia, 27, who lives a block from the hospital, told AP that he saw "a super explosion and everything caught on fire."

Garcia and others made their way to the nursery. "Fortunately, we were able to get eight babies out," he said.

A government website said the city-run hospital, on the western edge of the capital, was founded in 1993 and had 35 beds. It is located in a densely populated lower-middle-class neighborhood next to a school, AP said.

Contributing: Michael Winter, USA TODAY