DHAKA: Dozens of people have been injured in an explosion and fire at a sweet factory in northern Mexico.

Officials said a boiler exploded in the Blueberry factory at an industrial park in Ciudad Juarez, causing the ceiling to collapse.

About 300 people were said to be working in the factory at the time.

Some unconfirmed reports said 20 people were missing. Fire crews and about 30 ambulances were at the scene, local media reported.

Civil protection chief Fernando Motta Allen said four of those injured were in a critical state and 10 were seriously hurt.

"There is an area which (rescuers) were not able to get to because they are working to control the fire sparked by the damaged boiler," he said.

Guillermo Terrazas, a local government spokesman in Ciudad Juarez, described it as "a bad explosion".

He said it was unclear if anyone had been killed or was trapped under the debris.

Footage from the scene showed local people gathering outside, many of them in tears.

Ciudad Juarez is in the state of Chihuahua on the border with the US state of Texas.

Source: BBC

BDST: 0544 HRS, OCT 25, 2013
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