Death toll from Mexico pipeline blast rises to 73

At least 73 people have been killed in Friday's fuel pipeline explosion in Mexico's central state of Hidalgo, said governor Omar Fayad on Saturday evening.

More dead bodies have been recovered at the scene as the cleaning work is going on and more people who had suffered critical injuries in the explosion died in different hospitals, said the official.

He also reported that the number of people injured is now 74. Among them, 24 are being treated in hospitals in Hidalgo and 50 are in hospitals of Mexico City, the States of Mexico, Queretaro and Guanajuato.

Previous reports said that at least 71 people were killed and 76 others injured in the explosion.

"The expectation of finding more people alive is practically disappearing," Fayad added.

Attorney General of Mexico Alejandro Gertz told reporters that one of the clues under investigation is that the static electricity from the synthetic clothing of people around the pipeline may have detonated the blast since the gasoline was loaded with a series of high-lethal flammable gases.

At the moment no one has been detained due to the explosion in Hidalgo, he said.

Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, who has launched a major crackdown on increasing fuel theft in the country, said that the incident would not stop the combat against fuel theft and "there will be no complicity of the federal government for these crimes."

The Tuxpan-Tula pipeline of the state-owned petroleum company Pemex runs from the coasts of the Gulf of Mexico to the Tula refinery, near the site of the incident.

The explosion and ensuing blaze occurred at a pipeline spot in the community of San Primitivo of the municipality of Tlahuelilpan at around 7:00 p.m. local time (0100 GMT) on Friday.

According to the local government, between 600 and 800 people gathered at the site to collect leaking fuel with containers when the explosion took place.

Authorities said that the pipeline leakage was illegally tapped by fuel thieves, a problem that afflicts the Pemex pipelines and cost the country some 3 billion U.S. dollars last year.