Tula de Allende, Mexico, Jan 21, 2019 / 15:46 pm
The bishops of Mexico have offered prayers and condolences following Friday's explosion of a fuel pipeline which killed at least 79 people in Hidalgo state.
The Jan. 18 blast occurred after a pipeline in Tlahuelilpan municipality, about 10 miles northeast of Tula, was punctured by suspected fuel thieves. As many as 800 people were converged around the gushing gasoline to fill containers when the blaze took place.
"We are offering all our prayers and Masses, as well as our solidarity with the families of the victims, the injured and those missing," the president and secretary general of the Mexican bishops' conference said in a Jan. 19 statement.
"We appreciate and encourage the the company and consolation" offered by Bishop Juan Pedro Juárez Meléndez of Tula and his priests, "in hospitals and funeral chapels, to the relatives of all those affected by this accident."