Mexico: Many burnt alive while filling containers from ruptured fuel pipeline

A ruptured pipeline in central Mexico exploded on Friday, burning many people who were trying to fill containers with fuel, the government of the central state of Hidalgo said. Mexican television footage showed flames leaping into the night sky as the pipeline burned in the municipality of Tlahuelilpan near a refinery to the north of Mexico City.

State governor Omar Fayad told local television he did not yet know if anyone had died, but that he had received reports that "many people" had been burned in the explosion. 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.