Fireworks blast kills 7, injures 8 at home near Mexico City

MEXICO CITY (AP) — An explosion ripped through a home where fireworks were being stored outside the Mexican capital Wednesday, killing seven people and injuring eight more.

The Mexico State government said in a statement that the bodies of two men and one woman were found on a patio at the home in Tultepec, just north of Mexico City.

A woman died on the way to the hospital, and another died while being treated at the facility. A subsequent statement raised the death toll to seven but did not give details.

Four of the injured are children.

The blast also damaged or destroyed 23 nearby homes plus a dozen cars.

A photo widely reproduced in Mexican media showed flames and a pillar of smoke rising above the residential neighborhood of La Piedad.

Many residents in Tultepec make a living fabricating and selling homemade fireworks, and explosions there are a semi-regular occurrence.

In December 2016 a massive chain-reaction explosion killed several dozen people at an open-air fireworks market in the city as it was bustling with holiday shoppers.