Two Dead, Several Injured in Gas Leak Explosion at Mexican Resort
A police officer walks past an ambulance and the coroner’s vehicle at a scene where an explosion occurred at the Kool Beach restaurant, presumably caused by gas accumulation, which left four tourists injured, according to local media, in Playa del Carmen, MexicoCorrespondentThe restaurant where the incident took place is located in a busy tourist area of the Playa del Carmen resort, south of Cancun, and some casualties were apparently visitors, although no information on their countries of origin has been made available.A gas tank exploded at a beachside restaurant on Mexico’s Caribbean coast on Monday, killing two people and wounding at least 21, the local Mexican media reported. Eight of those injured at the Kool Beach restaurant required hospitalization, according to police in the coastal state of Quintana Roo. The blast happened “in a gas tank in the restaurant’s kitchen,” according to state police head Lucio Hernández’s social media posts.Photos from the incident appeared to show blown-out windows and a collapsed awning.
#EnterateMx Explosión de gas en restaurante de Playa Mamitas provoca incendio; reportan la muerte de dos personas https://t.co/iweUpC9HYk pic.twitter.com/UWQM4Rladh
— Entérate México (@EnterateMexico_) March 14, 2022
Explosión en restaurante Kool Beach deja al menos dos muertos y 19 heridos en Playa del Carmen.
Más información 👉https://t.co/eOXTISVJeB
🎥 Twitter/ Lucio Hernández, secretario de seguridad de #QuintanaRoo pic.twitter.com/Nw4A88Dps2
— POSTAmx (@postamx) March 14, 2022
Los tres niveles de gobierno, cuerpos de seguridad y emergencias atienden la explosión de un tanque de gas, en el restaurant Kool Beach, de #PlayaDelCarmen, se evalua causas, daños y lesionados, hasta el momento se han recibido 4 heridos en hospital de SESA y 4 en el IMSS. pic.twitter.com/WNRX5Cds9n
— Coordinación Estatal de Protección Civil QRoo (@ProtCivil_QRoo) March 14, 2022
During a news conference at the scene of the incident, Lili Campos, municipal president of Solidaridad, pointed out that the bodies of the two deceased could not be removed from the scene due to the risk of collapse, but claimed that they had been employed at the restaurant.The injured were reportedly transferred to the General Hospital of Playa del Carmen and others were sent to private hospitals.The official reportedly said that the person in charge of the beach club was already brought in by authorities to give testimony.According to officials two have died and, of the 17 injured, four are foreigners.The media claimed that this incident is not the first time that an improperly-connected cooking gas line has resulted in fatalities on Mexico’s Caribbean coast, which remains a popular tourist destination.