Ciudad de México. El Instituto Mexicano del Seguro Social (IMSS), informó que esta noche, a las 20:16 horas falleció el último paciente que era atendido en el instituto por la explosión en Tlahuelilpan, Hidalgo, ocurrida el pasado 18 de enero, cuando vecinos de la zona sacaban gasolina de una toma clandestina.

El IMSS detalló que el paciente (no especificó si era hombre o mujer), estaba siendo atendido en la Unidad Médica de Alta Especialidad (UMAE), Doctor Victorio de la Fuente Narváez, en Magdalena de las Salinas, Ciudad de México.

El gobierno de Hidalgo informó el 28 de febrero que la cifra de fallecidos era de 134 personas. Ahora el IMSS da a conocer un deceso más.

68 personas murieron el día de la explosión en el campo de alfalfa dónde se produjo el estallido y 67 en los hospitales dónde fueron atendidos.



Así aún quedan 8 personas hospitalizadas y cinco han sido dadas de alta por mejoría.

Hasta el momento 16 cadáveres ya fueron identificados.</s>A huge fire exploded at a pipeline leaking fuel in central Mexico on Friday, killing at least 20 people and badly burning 60 others as locals collected the spilling gasoline in buckets, officials said.

The leak was caused by fuel thieves illegally tapping the pipeline in a small town in the state of Hidalgo, about 62 miles north of Mexico City, according to state oil company Petroleos Mexicanos, or Pemex.

Video footage showed dozens of residents near the town of Tlahuelilpan gathered to collect spilled fuel in buckets, garbage cans and other vessels. Fuel was seen spouting dozens of feet into the air from the tap. Footage then showed flames shooting high into the air against a night sky and the pipeline ablaze.

Hidalgo Gov. Omar Fayad said 20 people were killed immediately and 60 suffered burns in the blast at the duct that carries fuel — apparently gasoline — from the Gulf coast to the Mexico City area.

“Caring for the wounded is our top priority,” Fayad said.

Pemex attributed the blaze to “the manipulation of an illegal tap.”

President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador has declared an offensive against fuel theft, and on Friday he called on all branches of government to assist the victims.

Hidalgo state police said the leak was first reported about 5 p.m. local time.

“There was a report that residents were on the scene trying to obtain fuel,” according to a police report. Two hours later, the pipeline burst into flames.

It is not the first time such an accident has occurred.

In December 2010, authorities blamed oil thieves for a pipeline explosion in a central Mexico near the capital that killed 28 people, including 13 children.

That blast burned people and scorched homes, affecting 5,000 residents in an area six miles wide in San Martin Texmelucan.

Lopez Obrador launched an offensive against the $3-billion-per-year fuel theft industry after taking office Dec. 1. Thieves drilled about 12,581 illegal taps in the first 10 months of 2018, and the country has deployed 3,200 marines to guard pipelines and refineries.

The new administration has also shut down pipelines to detect and deter illegal taps, relying more on delivering fuel by tanker truck. But there aren't enough trucks, and long lines at gas stations have plagued several states.</s>At least 21 people were killed and 71 were injured on Friday when a pipeline ruptured by suspected fuel thieves exploded in central Mexico as dozens of people tried to fill up containers, state and federal authorities said.

Mexican television footage showed flames leaping into the night sky in the municipality of Tlahuelilpan, in Hidalgo state north of Mexico City, as people screamed and cried for help.

READ MORE: 7 killed after shooting in Mexico’s resort city Playa del Carmen

Hidalgo’s governor Omar Fayad told Mexican television that emergency services had registered the charred bodies of 21 people, and that at least 71 others had been injured. However, the blaze had yet to be extinguished, he said.

“There’s still a very hot area where we think the number of injured or dead we haven’t had access to could rise,” he said.

Images published on broadcaster Televisa showed people with severe burns from the blast as the government sent in ambulances and doctors to treat the victims.

Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador has launched a major crackdown on rampant fuel theft, which the government said cost the country more than $3 billion last year.

The explosion was one of the worst in recent history in a country that has suffered hundreds of illegal ruptures to its network of oil and gas pipelines.

“I urge the entire population not to be complicit in fuel theft,” Fayad said on Twitter. “Apart from being illegal, it puts your life and those of your families at risk.”

READ MORE: Mexico to increase security at U.S. border, says it will deport migrants who try to cross

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.

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.

WATCH: First Nations anti-pipeline blockade over for now

Almost all the injured had been accounted for, public security minister Alfonso Durazo told Mexican television.

Separately, Pemex said on Friday evening it was also dealing with a separate pipeline rupture by suspected fuel thieves in San Juan del Rio in the neighboring state of Queretaro. There was no danger to the population, the firm added.

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.</s>A huge fire exploded at a pipeline leaking fuel in central Mexico on Friday, killing at least 21 people and badly burning 71 others as locals were collecting the spilling gasoline in buckets and garbage cans, officials said.

The leak was caused by an illegal tap that fuel thieves had drilled into the pipeline in a small town in the state of Hidalgo, about 62 miles (100 kilometers) north of Mexico City, according to state oil company Petroleos Mexicanos, or Pemex.

Video footage showed dozens of residents near the town of Tlahuelilpan gathered to collect spilled fuel in buckets, garbage cans and other vessels. It appeared an almost festive atmosphere as whole families gathered in a field as a geyser of fuel spouted dozens of feet into the air from the tap.

Footage then showed flames shooting high into the air against a night sky and the pipeline ablaze. Screams could be heard.

Hidalgo Gov. Omar Fayad said 21 people were killed immediately and 71 suffered burns in the blast at the duct that carries fuel —apparently gasoline — from the Gulf coast to Tula, a city just north of Mexico City.

"Caring for the wounded is our top priority," Fayad said.

Pemex attributed the blaze to "the manipulation of an illegal tap."

President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador has declared an offensive against fuel theft and the blast will further focus attention on the $3 billion per-year illegal industry.

"I greatly lament the grave situation Tlahuelilpan is suffering because of the explosion of the duct," Lopez Obrador tweeted. He called on all branches of government to assist the victims.

Hidalgo state police said the leak was first reported at about 5:00 p.m. local time.

"There was a report that residents were on the scene trying to obtain fuel," according to a police report. Two hours later, the pipeline burst into flames.

And another pipeline burst into flames in the neighboring state of Queretaro, because of another illegal tap. Pemex said the fire near the city of San Juan del Rio "is in an unpopulated area and there is no risk to human beings."

It is not the first time such an accidents have occurred.

In December 2010, authorities blamed oil thieves for a pipeline explosion in a central Mexico near the capital that killed 28 people, including 13 children.

That blast burned people and scorched homes, affecting 5,000 residents in an area six miles (10 kilometers) wide in San Martin Texmelucan.

Lopez Obrador launched an offensive against fuel theft after taking office Dec. 1. Thieves drilled about 12,581 illegal taps in the first 10 months of 2018 and the country has deployed 3,200 marines to guard pipelines and refineries.

The new administration has also shut down pipelines to detect and deter illegal taps, relying more on delivering fuel by tanker truck. But there aren't enough trucks, and long lines at gas stations have plagued several states.

However, fuel theft gangs have been able to win the loyalty of whole neighborhoods, using free gas and getting local residents to act as lookouts and confront military patrols carrying out raids against the thefts.

It is unclear whether Friday's tragedy would turn the tide of opinion against the gangs in the impoverished villages that lie above the underground pipelines.

"I am calling on the entire population not to be accomplices to fuel theft," Fayad wrote. "What happened today in Tlahuelilpan must never happen again."</s>At least 66 people were killed after a pipeline ruptured by suspected fuel thieves exploded in Mexico, authorities said on Saturday, as President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador defended the army despite its failure to clear the site before the blast.

Dozens of burned bodies lay in the charred field where the blast occurred on Friday evening by the town of Tlahuelilpan in the central state of Hidalgo in what was one of the worst incidents to hit Mexico’s troubled oil infrastructure in years.

Forensic experts inspected and photographed the remains while soldiers and other military personnel guarded the cordoned-off area that was littered with half-burned shoes, clothes and containers used by people to collect fuel.

At a news conference with Lopez Obrador, Hidalgo State Governor Omar Fayad said 66 people were killed and 76 people injured in Friday evening’s explosion, which happened as local residents tried to fill buckets and drums with fuel.

Veteran leftist Lopez Obrador launched a crackdown on fuel theft on Dec. 27 and ordered pipelines to be closed temporarily to stop illegal taps draining billions of dollars from the heavily-indebted state oil firm Petroleos Mexicanos (Pemex).

Video on social media of people filling buckets from the pipeline during daylight hours in the presence of the armed forces. But Lopez Obrador, who vowed to continue the crackdown on fuel theft, defended the army against questions about why soldiers failed to prevent the tragedy.

“We’re not going to fight fire with fire,” he said. “We think that people are good, honest, and if we’ve reached these extremes … it’s because they were abandoned.”

Backing comments made earlier by his minister for public security, Lopez Obrador said the army had been right to avoid a confrontation due to the number of people seeking to benefit from free fuel at the pipeline site.

The priority, he said, was to eradicate the social problems and lack of opportunities that had prompted people to put their lives at risk to get at the fuel – a few liters of which are worth more than the daily minimum wage in Mexico.

Relatives of victims stood huddled together, some of them crying, after the massive blast. Much of the rush to siphon off fuel and the chaos of the explosion was captured on mobile phones and began quickly circulating on social media.

Construction worker David Lozada, 35, was looking for his missing brother, 34-year-old Jesus Manuel on Saturday morning.

“I came looking for him when the fire was still going,” he said. “But we had stay on this side we couldn’t get to here. Because of the heat of the blaze and the soldiers wouldn’t let us. His friends confirmed that he was around here.”

Mexico’s top federal prosecutor Alejandro Gertz said the pipeline was tapped deliberately, but that the investigation was complicated because everyone right at the blast site died.

Soon after the government said Friday’s blaze had been put out, TV footage showed tense exchanges between authorities guarding the site and residents over the death toll.

Lopez Obrador says his decision to shut down pipelines to combat crime has greatly reduced theft. However, it sparked fears for the economy, as well as triggering fuel shortfalls in central Mexico, including Hidalgo.</s>A massive fireball that engulfed people scooping up fuel spilling from a pipeline ruptured by thieves in central Mexico killed 66 people and badly burned 76 others in what was a chronicle of a tragedy foretold.

Hidalgo state Gov. Omar Fayad said over 85 other people on Saturday were listed as missing a day after a massive fireball erupted at an illegal pipeline tap in the small town of Tlahuelilpan, about 62 miles (100 kilometers) north of Mexico City.

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 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.

It is now likely to further intensify efforts to crack down on the illegal taps and focus attention on Lopez Obrador's fight against the $3 billion per-year illegal fuel theft industry.

With crowds of townspeople often involved, either aiding thieves or collecting spilled fuel in primitive containers, it was only a matter of time before a fire occurred.

In fact, they have occurred before, but seldom with the scale and horrifying death toll of Friday's fire in the state of Hidalgo, which came as people collected the spilled gasoline in buckets, plastic jugs and garbage cans.

The leak was caused by an illegal pipeline tap in the small town of Tlahuelilpan, about 62 miles (100 kilometers) north of Mexico City, according to state oil company Petroleos Mexicanos, or Pemex.

Video footage showed dozens of residents in an almost festive atmosphere as whole families gathered in a field as a geyser of fuel spouted dozens of feet into the air from the tap.

Footage then showed flames shooting high into the air against a night sky and the pipeline ablaze. Screaming people ran from the flames, some themselves burning and waving their arms.

Pemex attributed the blaze to "the manipulation of an illegal tap."

Hidalgo state police said the leak was first reported at about 5:00 p.m. local time. "There was a report that residents were on the scene trying to obtain fuel," according to a police report. Two hours later, the pipeline burst into flames.

And another pipeline burst into flames in the neighboring state of Queretaro on Friday, because of another illegal tap. Pemex said the fire near the city of San Juan del Rio was "in an unpopulated area and there is no risk to human beings."

In December 2010, authorities blamed oil thieves for a pipeline explosion in a central Mexico near the capital that killed 28 people, including 13 children.

That blast burned people and scorched homes, affecting 5,000 residents in an area six miles (10 kilometers) wide in San Martin Texmelucan.

The blast will further focus attention on Lopez Obrador's fight against the $3 billion per-year illegal fuel theft industry.

"I greatly lament the grave situation Tlahuelilpan is suffering because of the explosion of the duct," Lopez Obrador tweeted. He called on all branches of government to assist the victims.

He launched the offensive after taking office Dec. 1, deploying 3,200 marines to guard pipelines and refineries. His administration also shut down pipelines to detect and deter illegal taps, relying more on delivering fuel by tanker truck. There aren't enough trucks, however, and long lines at gas stations have plagued several states.

But Lopez Obrador faces resistance in his battle against fuel theft. Gangs have been able to win the loyalty of whole neighborhoods, using free gasoline and getting locals to act as lookouts and confront military patrols carrying out raids against the thefts.

It is unclear whether Friday's tragedy will turn the tide of opinion against the gangs in the impoverished villages that lie above the underground pipelines.

"I am calling on the entire population not to be accomplices to fuel theft," Fayad wrote. "What happened today in Tlahuelilpan must never happen again."</s>According to the government of Hidalgo state, the pipeline was ruptured by suspected fuel thieves filling up containers. Footage showed a huge inferno against the night sky in the municipality of Tlahuelilpan to the north of Mexico City. Governor Omar Fayad said: “The preliminary report I’ve been passed is very serious, they’re telling me 20 people have died, charred.”

He urged people not to steal fuel, as it could put their lives at risk. Mr Fayad added: “What happened today in Tlahuelilpan should not be repeated. Mexico has suffered from widespread fuel theft for many years, which the government claims costs the country more than $3billion. Thieves drilled about 12,581 illegal taps in the first 10 months of 2018.

The crackdown involved state oil firm Pemex changing its distribution mechanism, triggering fuel shortages, empty petrol stations and long lines of angry motorists. Many pipelines were simply switched off, meaning fuel has to be transferred by truck. The President expressed his concern for the Tlahuelilpan disaster on Twitter, saying: "I greatly lament the grave situation Tlahuelilpan is suffering because of the explosion of the duct."

He added that he wanted the "entire government" to help people at the scene. Another pipeline burst into flames in the neighbouring state of Queretaro, but the Mexican army reported that no one was hurt. A charred vehicle at the scene of that fire means fuel theft may also have been involved in this instance. A disaster like this also occured in December 2010, when a pipeline explosion in central Mexico killed 28 people including 13 children. Authorities blamed fuel thieves for this incident as well.</s>Stealing fuel from oil pipelines appears not to be a peculiar Nigerian habit. It is also a problem in Mexico, where the theft cost the government about $3billion in 2018.

At least 20 people were killed and 54 were injured on Friday when a pipeline ruptured by suspected fuel thieves exploded in central Mexico as dozens of people tried to fill up containers, state and federal authorities said.

Mexican television footage showed flames leaping into the night sky in the municipality of Tlahuelilpan, in Hidalgo state north of Mexico City, as people shouted and cried for help.

“The preliminary report I’ve been passed is very serious, they’re telling me 20 people have died, charred,” Hidalgo’s Governor Omar Fayad told Mexican television.

Images published on broadcaster Televisa showed people with severe burns from the blast as the government sent in ambulances and doctors to treat the victims.

Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador has launched a major crackdown on rampant fuel theft, which the government said cost the country more than $3 billion last year.

Governor Fayad said there were 71 people injured in the blast, one of the worst in recent history in a country that has suffered hundreds of illegal ruptures to its network of oil and gas pipelines.

“I urge the entire population not to be complicit in fuel theft,” Fayad said on Twitter. “Apart from being illegal, it puts your life and those of your families at risk.”

The fire had yet to be extinguished, he said.

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.

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.

Separately, Pemex said on Friday evening it was also dealing with a separate pipeline rupture by suspected fuel thieves in San Juan del Rio in the neighbouring state of Queretaro. There was no danger to the population, the firm added.

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.

In a similar incident to Mexico’s, 60 people died in an oil pipeline fire in Ososioma, near Aba, Abia state in October 2018. In December, an attempt to steal petrol from a pipeline at Abule Egba, in Lagos triggered a huge fire that left many houses, vehicles burnt.</s>TLAHUELILPAN, Mexico (Reuters) - At least 66 people were killed after a pipeline ruptured by suspected fuel thieves exploded in central Mexico, authorities said on Saturday, as President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador defended the army despite its failure to clear the site before the blast.

Forensic experts filled body bags with charred human remains in the field where the fiery blast occurred Friday evening by the town of Tlahuelilpan in the state of Hidalgo, in one of the deadliest incidents to hit Mexico’s troubled oil infrastructure in years.

Soldiers and other military personnel guarded the cordoned-off area that was littered with half-burned shoes, clothes and containers that were being used by people to collect fuel.

Grief-stricken family members blocked the dirt access road to the field, saying they would not let funeral service vehicles pass until they were told where the dead were being taken.

“They should give us an answer, if not, we’re not moving,” said Maria Isabel Garcia, 49, who was looking for two nieces. “They’ll have to drive the goddamn cars over us.”

The group eventually let the vehicles through.

At a news conference with Lopez Obrador, Hidalgo State Governor Omar Fayad said 66 people were killed and 76 people injured in the explosion, which happened as local residents scrambled to fill buckets and drums from a gush of fuel from the pipeline that authorities said rose up to 23 feet (7 meters) high.

Veteran leftist Lopez Obrador launched a crackdown on fuel theft on Dec. 27 and ordered pipelines to be closed temporarily to stop illegal taps draining billions of dollars from the heavily-indebted state oil firm Petroleos Mexicanos (Pemex).

Video on social media showed people filling buckets from the pipeline during daylight hours in the presence of the armed forces before the blast. But Lopez Obrador, who vowed to continue the crackdown on fuel theft, defended the army in the face of questions about why soldiers failed to prevent the tragedy.

“We’re not going to fight fire with fire,” he said. “We think that people are good, honest, and if we’ve reached these extremes ... it’s because they were abandoned.”

Lopez Obrador said the army had been right to avoid a confrontation due to the large number of people seeking to make off with a trove of free fuel - a few liters of which are worth more than the daily minimum wage in Mexico.

Blaming previous governments for neglecting the population, he said fuel theft had been a chronic problem for years and that the priority was to eradicate the social problems and lack of opportunities that had made people put their lives at risk.

Still, Lopez Obrador had vowed to tighten security in sensitive sections of the oil infrastructure, and the ruptured pipeline was only a few miles away from a major oil refinery.

Pemex’s Chief Executive Octavio Romero told reporters that there had been 10 illegal fuel taps in the same municipality in the last three months alone. Neither he nor the president said exactly when the valves to the pipeline were closed.

Relatives of victims stood huddled together, some of them crying, after the massive blast. Much of the rush to siphon off fuel and the chaos of the explosion was captured on mobile phones and began quickly circulating on social media.

Local media published graphic pictures of victims from the blast site covered in burns and shorn of their clothes.

Lopez Obrador has said his decision to shut down pipelines to combat crime has greatly reduced fuel theft. However, it sparked fears for the economy, as well as triggering fuel shortfalls in central Mexico, including Hidalgo.

“There was a gasoline shortage, people one way or another wanted to be able to move around,” said farmer Ernesto Sierra, 44. “Some even came with their bean pots.”</s>Latest: The death toll from a pipeline explosion in central Mexico has risen to 66, according to Hidalgo state governor Omar Fayad.

Over 85 other people on Saturday were listed as missing a day after a massive fireball erupted at an illegal pipeline tap in the small town of Tlahuelilpan, about 62 miles north of Mexico City.

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 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.

It is now likely to further intensify efforts to crack down on the illegal taps and focus attention on Mr Lopez Obrador’s fight against the illegal fuel theft industry.

Video footage showed dozens of people in an almost festive atmosphere gathered in a field where a duct had been breached by fuel thieves.

Footage then showed flames shooting high into the air against a night sky and the pipeline ablaze. Screaming people ran from the explosion, some themselves burning and waving their arms.

In an early morning press conference on Saturday, Mr Lopez Obrador vowed to continue the fight against the billion-dollar illegal fuel theft industry. The Mexican president has vowed to crack down on illegal fuel pipelines (Claudio Cruz/AP)

“We are going to eradicate that which not only causes material damages, it is not only what the nation loses by this illegal trade, this black market of fuel, but the risk, the danger, the loss of human lives,” he said.

The war against fuel theft was a theme repeated by people in Tlahuelilpan, which is crossed by pipelines and located just a few miles from a refinery.

Another pipeline burst into flames earlier on Friday in the neighbouring state of Queretaro as a result of another illegal tap. Fuel company Pemex said the fire near the city of San Juan del Rio was “in an unpopulated area and there is no risk to human beings”.

In December 2010, authorities also blamed oil thieves for a pipeline explosion in central Mexico that killed 28 people, including 13 children.

That blast burned people and scorched homes, affecting 5,000 residents in an area six miles wide in San Martin Texmelucan.

Mr Lopez Obrador launched the offensive against illegal taps soon after taking office on December 1, deploying 3,200 marines to guard pipelines and refineries.

His administration also shut down pipelines to detect and deter illegal taps, relying more on delivering fuel by tanker truck. There are not enough trucks, however, and long queues at gas stations have plagued several states.

Marciel Cervantes fears his brother, Isaac Aurelio Cervantes, is among those lost in Friday’s blast. He found the 26-year-old’s car parked on the road next to the field, and said his brother has not answered his phone.

“The people already know what they’re getting into with this,” he said as he wrapped a blanket tightly around himself against the cold. “But they don’t understand.”

At least 21 killed in Mexico pipeline blast

Update 8am: At least 21 people have been killed and more than 70 others injured after a fiery explosion at a pipeline leaking fuel in central Mexico.

Locals were collecting the spilling petrol in buckets and rubbish bins when the fuel ignited on Friday, officials said.

The leak was caused by an illegal tap that fuel thieves had drilled into the pipeline in a small town in the state of Hidalgo, about 62 miles north of Mexico City, according to state oil company Petroleos Mexicanos (Pemex).

Video footage showed dozens of residents near the town of Tlahuelilpan gathered to collect spilled fuel in buckets, garbage cans and other vessels.

It appeared an almost festive atmosphere as whole families gathered in a field as a geyser of fuel spouted dozens of feet into the air from the tap.

Footage then showed flames shooting high into the air against a night sky and the pipeline ablaze while screams could be heard.

Hidalgo governor Omar Fayad said 21 people were killed immediately and 71 suffered burns in the blast at the duct that carries fuel —apparently petrol — from the Gulf coast to Tula, a city just north of Mexico City.

“Caring for the wounded is our top priority,” Mr Fayad said.

Pemex attributed the blaze to “the manipulation of an illegal tap”.

President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador has declared an offensive against fuel theft and the blast will further focus attention on the 3 billion dollar (£2.33bn) per-year illegal industry.

“I greatly lament the grave situation Tlahuelilpan is suffering because of the explosion of the duct,” Mr Lopez Obrador tweeted. He called on all branches of government to assist the victims.

Hidalgo state police said the leak was first reported at about 5pm local time.

“There was a report that residents were on the scene trying to obtain fuel,” according to a police report. Two hours later, the pipeline burst into flames.

And another pipeline burst into flames in the neighbouring state of Queretaro, because of another illegal tap. Pemex said the fire near the city of San Juan del Rio “is in an unpopulated area and there is no risk to human beings”.

Scene of the blast in Tlahuelilpan, Hidalgo state, Mexico (Secretary of National Defense via AP)

It is not the first time such an accidents have occurred.

In December 2010, authorities blamed oil thieves for a pipeline explosion in a central Mexico near the capital that killed 28 people, including 13 children.

That blast burned people and scorched homes, affecting 5,000 residents in an area six miles wide in San Martin Texmelucan.

Lopez Obrador launched an offensive against fuel theft after taking office December 1.

Thieves drilled about 12,581 illegal taps in the first 10 months of 2018 and the country has deployed 3,200 marines to guard pipelines and refineries.

The new administration has also shut down pipelines to detect and deter illegal taps, relying more on delivering fuel by tanker truck. But there are not enough trucks, and long lines at gas stations have plagued several states.

However, fuel theft gangs have been able to win the loyalty of whole neighbourhoods, using free gas and getting local residents to act as lookouts and confront military patrols carrying out raids against the thefts.

It is unclear whether Friday’s tragedy would turn the tide of opinion against the gangs in the impoverished villages that lie above the underground pipelines.

“I am calling on the entire population not to be accomplices to fuel theft,” Mr Fayad wrote. “What happened today in Tlahuelilpan must never happen again.”
An illicitly tapped fuel pipeline explodes in Tlahuelilpan, Hidalgo, Mexico, killing 135 people and wounding 8 others. It is believed the explosion occurred after the line was ruptured by suspected fuel thieves.