MEXICO CITY — Mexican state-owned petroleum company Pemex announced Wednesday that the death toll from a Tuesday morning explosion and subsequent fire at its gas compression plant in the northeastern state of Tamaulipas has risen to 29, Fox News Latino reported
The explosion occurred around 10:45 a.m. Tuesday at the gas facility near Reynosa, which is just across the border from McAllen, Texas.
Pemex employees accounted for four of the dead, while the other 25 were contractors, the company said in a statement.
Seven people injured in the accident are being treated at local medical facilities.
Mexican authorities have launched an investigation of the incident, which is the company’s worst since Oct. 23, 2007 when 22 workers died on an offshore oil platform in the Gulf of Mexico.