Gas leak cited as cause of Pemex explosion, officials say

Mexico's Attorney General says a gas leak caused a massive explosion at the headquarters of State Petroleum Company Pemex, in Mexico City, which has so far killed 37 people, injuring more than 100.

Attorney General Jesus Murillo Karam explained there had been a build up of methane gas from a sewer and this could have been ignited by an electrical fault. He stressed that no explosives had been found and that a rucksack at the scene contained cosmetics and clothes.

Pemex's safety record is littered with blunders. Last September a blast at a natural gas plant in the Border City of Reynosa killed 30 people. In 1992 a gasoline pipeline explosion in Mexico's second city Guadalajara killed more than 200 people. And in 1984 a fire at a Pemex plant in Mexico City killed more than 300 people. In the absence of an integrated fiscal system, successive Mexican Governments have extracted vast revenues from Pemex. Many part of its infrastructure are crumbling.

Listen to the full report by James Blears from Mexico City: