28 confirmed killed in truck explosion
A truck carrying 25 tons of explosive explodes in northern Mexico, killing 28 people and injuring 154 others killing.
A truck carrying 25 tons of an ammonium nitrate-based explosive collided with another vehicle in northern Mexico and later exploded, killing 28 people and injuring 154 others, state and federal officials said.
Authorities had earlier placed the death toll at 34, but the governor of Coahuila state, Humberto Moreira, said only 28 bodies had been officially recovered. Authorities earlier acknowledged that some bodies, difficult to identify, had been counted twice.
Ernesto Mata Castillo, a doctor who helped victims of the initial crash, said on Monday that the explosion of the apparently unmarked truck was "the kind of thing I have only seen on television, in war zones".
"I saw pieces of the truck flying through the air all over the place," said Mata Castillo, who was driving on the highway about 200 kilometers southwest of the US border where the accident occurred.
The accident was apparently made more deadly due to a lag of at least a half hour between the crash and the explosion, and the fact that many of those who responded to the scene may not have known that the truck was carrying explosive materials used in mining.
Moreira said 67 homes and about 50 vehicles were damaged by the blast.
Health authorities in the nearby city of Monclova reported that 154 people had been injured in the crash and ensuing blast.