MEXICO CITY – Injured and bleeding, mothers carrying infants fled from a maternity hospital shattered by a powerful gas explosion yesterday and rescuers swung sledgehammers to break through fallen concrete hunting for others who might be trapped.
At least two people were killed and 73 injured, Mexico City officials said. The known dead were a woman and a child. Officials earlier said at least four people had been killed.
About 75 percent of the hospital collapsed, officials said, and the priority was to continue digging in search of any trapped survivors.
Authorities said they had confirmed that none of the children registered in the hospital were missing, but said it was possible that others who had come for appointments could be trapped.
The city's health secretary, Armando Ahued, said the adult victim was a 25-year-old woman and the child was a newborn, between 2 and 3 weeks old.
He said 21 babies were injured, and nine of those and seven adults were in serious condition after being rushed to other hospitals.
The explosion occurred at 7:05 a.m. when a tanker truck was making a routine delivery of gas to the hospital kitchen and gas started to leak.
Witnesses said the tanker workers struggled frantically for 15 or 20 minutes to repair the leak while a large cloud of gas formed.
People started to evacuate the hospital, and then came a devastating explosion that sent up an enormous fireball and plumes of dust and smoke.
The worst hit parts of the hospital were the neonatology, reception and emergency reception units, he said.
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