Twenty Dead in Mexico Gas Tanker Truck Blast

A gas tanker exploded on a highway in a Mexico City suburb on Tuesday, killing at least 20 people, wounding dozens more and setting cars and homes on fire, officials said.

The blast rocked a modest neighborhood of Ecatepec, north of the Mexican capital, in the early hours of the day, injuring at least 36 people while affecting 15 cars and 27 homes, officials in the central state of Mexico said.

Eight children were among the dead and officials warned the death toll could still rise.

Nearby buildings, cars and trucks burst into flames after the tanker exploded before sunrise in the community of San Pedro Xalostoc, which is part of the municipality of Ecatepec.

The truck was propelled into the yard of one of the homes, killing a couple and their two children, according to the father's cousin.

"I ran out and took refuge on nearby roads after I heard the thunderclap. I saw the house of my relatives in flames and when I returned the forensic experts were removing the bodies of my relatives," Humberto Zedillo, 45, told Agence France Presse.

Firefighters sifted through the rubble for any more victims after the blast left the charred remains of vehicles on the highway, road cement barriers thrown to the side and smoke billowing from buildings.

"We have 20 people who lost their lives and 36 who were hospitalized," Mexico state's top prosecutor Miguel Angel Contreras told Formato 21 radio. "We are not ruling out that more (bodies) could be in the rubble."

The truck was traveling on a highway linking Mexico City to the central city of Pachuca when it exploded at around 5:30 am (1030 GMT). The truck apparently overturned and authorities were investigating the cause of the accident.

The driver survived the accident and was "detained in a hospital where he is receiving medical treatment," Mexico state public safety secretary Salvador Neme wrote on Twitter.

The truck belonged to a company named Termogas, according to the state-owned energy firm Pemex.

Neme said 13 people were in serious condition. Officials initially reported nine deaths before the toll rose throughout the morning. The highway was partially reopened hours after the accident.

The roads of the metropolis are notoriously congested and can be busy before dawn as commuters head to work in the city.

More than 24,000 people die in road accidents in Mexico each year, according to official figures, and experts have warned of the dangers posed by trucks carrying hazardous materials.

Trucks carrying dangerous substances were involved in almost 1,200 collisions between 2006 and 2009, killing 196 people and injuring 838 others, according to a study by the state-affiliated Mexican Transport Institute.

In April last year, 43 people died in the eastern state of Veracruz when a double-trailer truck lost its rear trailer and slammed into a bus packed with farmers.

It is also the latest deadly gas or oil incident to rattle Mexico.

On January 31, a gas build-up sparked a huge explosion in the Mexico City headquarters of state-owned energy giant Pemex, killing 37 people and injuring more than 120.

In September, an huge explosion killed 30 people at a gas facility near the US border.