“Deadly explosion at Mexican state-run petrochemical plant”

A large explosion has rocked a major petrochemical facility of Mexican national oil company Pemex in the Gulf state of Veracruz, killing at least three people, injuring dozens more and pumping a black cloud into the sky…Pemex said the explosion, which sent a huge, dark plume of smoke billowing upwards, occurred…on Wednesday at the facility’s Chlorinate-3 plant near the port of Coatzacoalcos, one of the company’s top oil export hubs…Local emergency officials said hundreds of people had been evacuated from the site…Pemex warned local residents to keep their distance from the site due to what it described as a dissipating cloud of toxic fumes…Petroquimica Mexicana de Vinilo, or PMV, a vinyl petrochemical plant that is a joint venture between Pemex’s petrochemical unit and Mexican plastic pipe maker Mexichem, was the facility hit by the blast...