Dozens die in Mexico truck blast

Dozens of people died when a trailer-truck exploded in a road accident in Mexico.

The blast left a crater of up to 20 metres in diameter in the road in the northern state of Coahuila, the El Universal daily said on its website.

The paper, quoting police, said 37 people were killed when the blast erupted after the trailer-truck hit another truck. But the civil protection agency put the death toll at 25.

Some 150 people were injured. Most of the people who died, including three newspaper journalists, had rushed to the scene of the crash.

"Reporters who were taking photographs died there as well as emergency workers and drivers who stopped to help," said state Gov. Humberto Moreira. The trailer-truck was carrying 25 tonnes of a derivative of the volatile ammonium nitrate chemical used for fertilizers, civil protection.