19 killed in Mexico factory blasts
Mexico City, July 6 : Two explosions on Thursday at a small fireworks factory in central Mexico left at least 19 people dead, including firefighters and police officers, and another 40 people injured, authorities said.
The blasts occurred at a facility in Tultepec, a town in central Mexico State known for its fireworks production, Xinhua reported.
The state Civil Protection agency confirmed the number of the dead, originally believed to have been 17, and the state Public Security Secretariat reported at least six of the fatal victims were firefighters or police officers attending to the first blast when the second occurred.
Among the injured were also a police officer and a firefighter, who were airlifted to hospitals in the state capital Toluca, the state government said in a statement. The rest of the wounded were taken to different area hospitals.
In a Twitter post, Mexico's President Enrique Pena Nieto regretted "the loss of lives in the Tultepec explosion," and expressed his condolences to the families of the victims.
The blasts ripped through a factory in La Saucera, a neighborhood on the outskirts of Tultepec, with the first explosion occurring around 9:30 a.m. local time (14:30 GMT). The second explosion occurred minutes later, after police and rescue workers had arrived to help the victims.
"We deeply regret the deaths, including those of fellow firefighters and police officers who saved many lives in exchange for their own," the state's Red Cross office said via Twitter.
Images taken from a distance of the first blast showed a tall plume of white smoke billowing into the sky, while closer video footage taken after the second blast showed firefighting crews hosing down burnt rubble outside the destroyed factory.
Known as Mexico's "fireworks capital," Tultepec produces some 25 tons of firecrackers and fireworks each year that are sold at markets around the country, especially in the lead up to the Independence Day celebrations in September.
In the past two years, explosions at licensed and makeshift factories, and the local fireworks market, have killed scores.
Barely a month ago, on June 6, seven people were killed, eight injured and nearly 100 homes damaged after an illegal cache of gunpowder exploded.
The worst incident occurred in December 2016, when firecrackers and fireworks were unintentionally set off at one of the market stalls, sparking a chain reaction of explosions that killed 42 merchants and customers.
Let the Truth be known. If you read VB and like VB, please be a VB Supporter and Help us deliver the Truth to one and all.
Two injuries, one DNF, a DQ as India end messy World Relays campaign
Gaborone (Botswana) (PTI): Amoj Jacob and Ragul Kumar got injured during the men's 4x400m and 4x100 races respectively as India ended their World Athletics Relays campaign in disappointment on the second day of competitions here on Sunday.
The Indian camp had high hopes of making the 2027 World Championships in the men's 4x400m relay but the team did not finish (DNF) the race as Jacob suffered cramps and pulled out of the race after taking the baton from the first leg runner Dharamveer Choudhary. Rajesh Ramesh and Vishal TK were to run in the third and fourth legs.
Those teams which could not qualify for the 2027 Beijing World Championships by reaching the final round of each of the six relay events on Saturday were given another chance in the second qualification round on Sunday.
The top two teams in each of the two heats (in all six relay events) booked the Beijing ticket on Sunday.
India will now have to try and qualify for the World Championships through the Top Lists of the World Athletics, which is a long and tedious process.
In the men's 4x100m race, third leg runner Ragul Kumar fell down the track after failing to hand over the baton inside the exchange zone to fourth leg runner Gurindervir Singh, which clearly showed the lack of coordination among the runners.
Harsh Santosh Raut and Animesh Kujur ran the first two legs.
The Indian quartet was disqualified and Kumar was seen being taken away from the Field of Play with the help of the volunteers.
It was a comedy of errors in the case of the women's 4x100m race, which saw the baton being dropped during an exchange between first leg runner Tamanna and second runner Nithya Gandhe, though the Indians finished the race in 53.09 seconds.
Gandhe started running quite a distance, but after realising that the baton was not in her hand, she turned and ran back to pick it up.
The only silver-lining for the Indian contingent was the national record time in the mixed 4x100m relay race, though the quartet of Ragul Kumar, Nithya Gandhe, Animesh Kujur and Sneha SS finished sixth in heat number two with a time of 41.35 seconds, bettering the previous national mark of 42.30 seconds set in March in Chandigarh.
The mixed 4x400m relay quartet of Theerthesh P Shetty, Kumari Saloni, Nihal William and Rashdeep Kaur ended at fifth in heat number one with a time of 3 minutes and 19.40 seconds.
On Saturday, all the five Indian relay teams had failed to make it to the respective final rounds and thus missed out on the 2027 World Championships berths.
