Death toll rises in Mexico petrochemical plant blast
MEXICO CITY -- Mexico's state oil company says that searchers have recovered four more bodies from a petrochemical plant wrecked by a huge explosion on the country's Gulf coast, raising the death toll to 32.
Petroleos Mexicanos said in a statement Sunday that rescuers with dogs had reached some of the area's most affected by Wednesday's blast and had located more bodies. It said all the workers in the plant that day have been located.
The company said more than 130 people in all suffered injuries when the explosion rocked the plant in Coatzacoalcos, 370 miles southeast of Mexico City.
Pemex has said the explosion happened after a leak but has not determined the source.
The Clorados 3 plant of Petroquimica Mexicana de Vinilo produces the hazardous industrial chemical vinyl chloride.
Desperate relatives gathered outside a petrochemical plant Thursday hoping for news about loved ones still unaccounted for.
About 30 families massed at a plant entrance road, where a sharp chemical smell still hung in the air about a mile from where the blast occurred Wednesday afternoon. Many wore facemasks to ward off the pungent odor.
Shoving broke out as people unsuccessfully tried to force their way into the installation in Coatzacoalcos on Mexico's southern Gulf coast. Some shouted at marines and soldiers who were called in to guard the facility, and they threw rocks at a white government SUV when it arrived at the scene.
Rosa Villalobos traveled about four hours by bus from the city of Veracruz to scour Coatzacoalcos hospitals looking for her son, Luis Alfonso Ruiz Villalobos, a 25-year-old worker at the plant. When she couldn't find him she showed up at the plant entrance.
"What I want is for justice to be done in my son's case, for there to be no impunity," Villalobos said. "I'm going to stay here. Even though I have no money, even though I have nothing to eat, I'm staying put."