A gas explosion at a beach side restaurant left at least two people dead and 19 injured, including one foreigner, in Playa del Carmen, Quintana Roo, on Monday.
Kool Beach Club, located next to Mamitas Beach on the city’s central beach strip, was partially destroyed by the blast, which shook neighboring buildings.
Eight seriously injured people were taken to hospital while 11 others were treated for shock and light injuries at the scene.
The explosion was the result of a gas leak rather than a premeditated attack, the head of public security in Playa del Carmen said.
Raúl Tassinari said the injuries were caused by the collapse of part of the building. “It looks like it was a gas leak that occurred in the kitchen; so far we have 19 people injured, two possibly deceased, who are trapped under rubble. Part of the structure collapsed in the kitchen,” he said.
Tassinari added that the two fatalities were restaurant workers and that a woman was trapped inside. “We have only one foreign person with minor injuries … We are going to assess the injured right now in the clinics. I have a female trapped in the place who is alive.”
The nationality of the of the injured foreigner has not been confirmed.
A customer who was visiting the restaurant with a Polish friend said the explosion shook neighboring buildings. He said that after the blast they both temporarily took refuge before helping injured people.
The explosion will not help recover Playa del Carmen’s reputation as a safe destination. Adding to a string of violent incidents in Quintana Roo since October, a British businessman was shot dead in front of his daughter in Playa del Carmen on Saturday.
Another of those incidents was the the murder of the manager of Mamita’s Beach Club in late January, which is just meters from Kool Beach Club.
The United States government issued a security alert for Quintana Roo in January and the FBI launched an investigation into criminal activity in the state in February.
With reports from Reforma, La Prensa and El Universal
