MEXICO CITY, Mexico (AFP) — An explosion caused by a suspected gas leak in a beachside restaurant left two dead and 19 injured in Mexico’s Caribbean resort of Playa del Carmen on Monday, authorities said.
The victims’ nationalities were not immediately known.
Soldiers were seen guarding the site of the blast, which caused severe damage to the restaurant in one of Mexico’s most popular tourist destinations.
“Emergency teams arrived at the scene to help the victims,” the prosecutor’s office in Quintana Roo state, home to Playa del Carmen, said in a statement.
It said an investigation had been launched into the explosion.
The incident is another setback to Mexico’s efforts to woo back tourists following the Covid-19 pandemic and an increase in violence in Caribbean resorts including Playa del Carmen, Cancun and Tulum.
On Saturday, a British businessman living in Playa del Carmen was shot dead.
Mexican prosecutors have linked most of the violence in recent years to turf wars between drug dealers or extortion.
© Agence France-Presse