29 Wounded in Tultepec Fireworks Market Blast Released from Hospital Xinhua
go to original December 24, 2016

Drone footage captured the aftermath of a major blast that ravaged a market site in Tultepec, outside Mexico City, on Thursday, two days after an explosion of fireworks broke out at the scene. (Ruptly TV)

Some 29 people wounded in Tuesday's explosion at a central Mexican fireworks market have been released from the hospital, authorities said Friday.

Another 24 victims remain hospitalized at 13 different hospitals in and around Tultepec, the town in the State of Mexico where the San Pablito market is located.

Around 3 p.m. on Tuesday, a series of explosions - six major blasts possibly from stored gunpowder kegs, and hundreds of smaller rockets and firecrackers going off in all directions - destroyed the market at the height of the annual shopping season.

The official death toll stands at 35, namely 26 people who died on site and nine who later died of their injuries. Four of the bodies were yet to be identified.

The market, which housed 300 businesses all selling fireworks paraphernalia, was virtually razed to the ground, robbing most families in Tultepec of a livelihood.

Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto has pledged to rebuild the market in the coming year.

As Mexico's biggest market of its kind, San Pablito market opened 16 years ago as a collection of makeshift canopy-covered stands and was rebuilt as a more permanent fixture after a similar explosion in 2006.

See the original at Global Times

Related: Tultepec Firefighters: Ill Paid, Ill Equipped (Mexico News Daily)

Related: Mexico Fireworks Market: Stories of the Survivors (CNN)

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