MEXICO CITY (REUTERS, NYTIMES) –  At least 20 people were killed and 54 were injured on Friday (Jan 18) when a pipeline ruptured by suspected fuel thieves exploded in central Mexico as dozens of people tried to fill up containers, state and federal authorities said. 

Mexican television footage showed flames leaping into the night sky in the municipality of Tlahuelilpan, in Hidalgo state north of 
Mexico City, as people shouted and cried for help.

“The preliminary report I’ve been passed is very serious, they’re telling me 20 people have died, charred, and that 54 are injured, burned,” Fayad told Mexican television. 

Images published on broadcaster Televisa showed people with severe burns from the blast as the government sent in ambulances and doctors to treat the victims.

The state-run energy company, Pemex, said the explosion was caused by an illegal fuel tap at the Tuxpan-Tula pipeline.  The country has been plagued by fuel thefts, and Fayad called on Mexicans “not to be accomplices.”

He said the practice was not only illegal but “puts your life and families at risk.”

“What happened today in Tlahuelilpan should not happen again,” he wrote. 

Video circulating on social media showed a huge fire spread across a field, with people silhouetted against the flames and dark smoke behind them. A pillar of fire rose into the night, the lights of emergency vehicles reflected in smoke. 

President Andrés Manuel López Obrador said on Twitter that he had “called on the whole government to provide assistance to the people at the site.”

The authorities said they had mobilised ambulances, medical specialists and other personnel, and that burn victims were being transferred to hospitals in Mexico City. 

Mexico is in the midst of a gas crisis, with shortages in and around the capital, long lines at stations around the country and criminal gangs known as huachicoleros siphoning petrol from pipelines to resell it.

López Obrador has made it a priority to stop the gangs, saying the market for cheap stolen fuel has cost the government some 60 billion pesos, or US$3.14 billion last year. 

The illegal taps can be dangerous. Twenty-seven people were killed when a pipeline exploded in central Puebla state in 2010, and dozens of people were injured and homes were destroyed. 

López Obrador has tried to crack down on thieves, shutting off pipelines thought vulnerable, diverting petrol to tanker trucks, and ordering 4,000 military and police personnel to guard stretches of pipeline.

The new transportation methods have caused delays in getting petrol to service stations, according to Pemex.  Last week, the pipeline that runs from the coastal city of Tuxpan to Mexico City was sabotaged in retaliation for the government’s new measures, the president said.

López Obrador had blamed the thefts, in part, on the “incompetence or complacency” of local authorities, and has maintained that his tactics have reduced the amount of fuel stolen. 

“I have said it before, and I’ll say it again: Let’s see who gets tired first, because we will stop the fuel theft,” he said. 

Separately, Pemex said on Friday evening it was also dealing with a separate pipeline rupture by suspected fuel thieves in San Juan del Rio in the neighboring state of Queretaro. There was no danger to the population, the firm added. 

The president’s crackdown on theft has significant public backing, though his decision to turn off pipelines to thwart the thieves disrupted fuel supply in central Mexico and raised concern that the shortages could damage the economy. 

Some users of social media responded to the explosion with anger, saying the fuel thieves only had themselves to blame. 

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