Death toll in Mexico gasoline pipeline blast climbs to 94: officials

Residents look at pictures of people missing after an explosion of a fuel pipeline ruptured by oil thieves, in the municipality of Tlahuelilpan, state of Hidalgo, Mexico January 21, 2019. REUTERS/Mohammed Salem Residents look at pictures of people missing after an explosion of a fuel pipeline ruptured by oil thieves, in the municipality of Tlahuelilpan, state of Hidalgo, Mexico January 21, 2019. REUTERS/Mohammed Salem

MEXICO CITY (Reuters) – The number of people who died from a gasoline pipeline explosion in central Mexico last week has risen to 94, government officials said on Tuesday, from 91 reported a day earlier.

The explosion last Friday occurred as about 800 people in Hidalgo state’s Tlahuelilpan district were collecting gasoline that was gushing from a pipeline leak near a major refinery.

Central Mexico had been hard hit by gasoline shortages after President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador launched a crackdown on fuel theft nearly a month ago, ordering pipelines closed in an effort to stamp out criminal activity.

(Reporting by Dave Graham and Daina Beth Solomon; Editing by Bernadette Baum)

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