COATZACOALCOS, Mexico - A spark touched off an explosion aboard a gasoline tanker ship Tuesday at a Mexican port, killing eight people and injuring nine others, officials said.
Four hundred workers were evacuated from the area of the ship, owned by Mexico's national oil monopoly Petroleos Mexicanos, or Pemex, company spokesman David Lartundo and civil protection official Daniel Martinez told The Associated Press..
Firefighters put out the blaze at Pemex's Pajarito marine terminal in the city of Coatzacoalcos Tuesday evening, after battling it for several hours.
Lartundo told reporters the explosion occurred while the ship was unloading gasoline at around 1 p.m. He said a spark from welding work on one of the tanker's cranes ignited the gasoline and caused the blast.
But Pemex said in a news release that the ship was empty of fuel and that the explosion occurred when repair work on the crane caused a spark that came contact with residual gasoline left in the tanker. The discrepancies could not immediately be resolved.
The company's news release said the blast killed three Pemex workers, three workers from repair company Lopez Garcia and two others who had not yet been identified. Nine more people were hospitalized for injuries, the company said.
Martinez said the explosion was felt in his office located more than 12 miles from the Pajaritos terminal in the gulf state of Veracruz.
"The whole building shook," Martinez said.
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