An explosion inside a Mexican candy factory on Thursday killed one person, injured at least 40 people, and did severe damage to the building.
According to the BBC, a boiler is believed to be the cause of the explosion at the Dulces Blueberry factory in the border city of Ciudad Juarez. The second floor blast caused the floor to collapse, injuring the workers who were downstairs.
Local authorities could not confirm that the boiler was the cause of the blast, but one of the factory workers, Ismael Bouchet, said that a new boiler had just been installed on the second floor, reports the Washington Post.
“I was able to help five people who walked out of the building but as soon as they were out they went into shock and fainted,” Bouchet said when he was interviewed outside of the factory.
About 300 workers were inside the factory at the time of the explosion. Reuters reports that about 20 people were unaccounted for following the blast, but that it is unknown whether those people were inside the building at the time or not.
Multiple fire crews and up to 30 ambulances arrived on the scene after the blast to give aid to the wounded. When firefighters entered the factory, they found one person dead.
Six other people are in critical condition out of the 40 total who were injured by the explosion, according to Ciudad Juarez Civil Protection Director Fernando Mota.
Rescue crews scoured the building well into Thursday night to see if they could find any more victims or survivors.
"We're still searching the area to see if there are more dead," Mota said.
The names of the deceased and the injured have not been released.