Gas leak blamed for Pemex blast

No explosives found: a build up of gas has been blamed for the explosion which caused several floors of the Pemex building to collapse last week

AFP/Scanpix

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Josh Lewis

 05 February 2013 03:52 GMT

The cause of an explosion and Pemex’s headquarters in Mexico City that killed at least 37 people has been blamed on an accumulation of gas in the basement.

The head of Mexico’s Attorney General Office, Jesus Murillo Karam, told a press conference that there had been no trace of explosives found at the site of the blast which caused the collapse of several floors in the building.

Murillo explained that there was little evidence of burn marks that would be seen in a typical bomb blast and no sign of a crater that is typically left by explosives.

Instead he said experts believed an electrical fault caused a spark that detonated the leaking gas.

"This explosion, at its peak,…

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