Mexico fireworks market blasts kill at least 31

A series of massive explosions destroyed a fireworks market outside the Mexican capital on Tuesday, killing at least 31 people, injuring dozens and leaving the market a charred wasteland.

More than 70 were injured as the blasts hit the San Pablito fireworks market in Tultepec, about 32km outside the city.

Television images showed a flurry of multicolored pyrotechnics exploding into the early afternoon sky as a giant plume of smoke rose above the market.

It was the third time in just over a decade that explosions have hit the marketplace. The detonations struck in the run-up to the busy Christmas holiday, when many Mexicans stock up on fireworks.

Some children suffered burns to more than 90% of their bodies and were being sent to the US city of Galveston in Texas for treatment, Eruviel Avila said, the governor of the State of Mexico in which Tultepec is located.

He also vowed to find and punish those responsible and to provide economic assistance to those who had lost their livelihoods.

The federal attorney general's office opened an investigation, saying in a statement that six separate blasts caused the destruction.

Fireworks continued to explode after the initial blast, as smoke billowed from the area in thick black clouds.

Isidro Sanchez, the head of Tultepec emergency services, said earlier that a lack of safety measures was the likely cause of the blasts.

Locals have been told to avoid the area and keep roads clear.

The blasts were the latest in a long-running series of fatal explosions and industrial accidents that have rocked Mexico's oil, gas and petrochemical industries.