An explosion inside a Mexican candy factory on Thursday killed one person, injured at least 40 people, and did severe damage to the building, Mexican authorities said.
According to the BBC, a newly-installed boiler is believed to be the cause behind the Dulces Blueberry factory explosion in the city of Ciudad Juarez.
Ciudad Juarez Civil Protection Director Fernando Mota said firefighters found a body inside and that 11 of the at least 40 injured are in serious condition, four of whom were in critical condition. Thirty people were treated for minor injuries.
"We're still searching the area to see if there are more dead," Fernando Motta, head of the city's emergency services, told reporters.
The names of the deceased and the injured have not been released.
The blast took place on the second floor of the Dulces Blueberry factory, causing the floor to collapse and injuring people working downstairs factory worker Ismael Bouchet said.
"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," he said outside the factory, which produces gummy bears, jelly beans, peach rings and other sweets.
Local authorities could not confirm that the boiler was the cause of the blast, but Bouchet, said that a new boiler had just been installed on the second floor, according to the Associated Press. Bouchet said people could smell acid in the area where the explosion occurred.
"Since the morning, several co-workers said there was a bad smell, that it smelled of acid and because it was a new area we thought it was normal," Bouchet said.
Firefighters and rescue crews continued to search the building for more victims Thursday night. Photographs of workers being helped by paramedics showed people with injuries that resembled chemical burns.
Dulces Blueberry employs 300 people and the candy is sent to a distributor based in El Paso, Texas, which lies across the border from Ciudad Juarez.
Ciudad Juarez, which is on the U.S. border, is a manufacturing hub and the assembly plants there employ many of its residents.
