2nd LD Writethru: Gas blast at Mexico City children's hospital kills 7, injures 54, truck driver arrested

A driver and his two assistants of the gas tank truck, which exploded Thursday morning outside a maternity and children's hospital in Mexico City, have been arrested, local authority said.

Seven people were killed, including four babies, and at least 54 others injured in the powerful explosion, among them 22 are children.

Hector Serrano, a senior official of Mexico City government, released this information here and added that they would continue to investigate the personnel involved in this incident.

Local television footage showed that buildings in the blast-hit area collapsed with smoke billowing and firefighters trying to put out the fire. Police and Staff from the Red Cross also joined the rescue work.

Mayor of Mexico City Miguel Anger Mancera, told Televisa network that many of the injured were hurt by flying glass and most of them suffer relatively minor injuries.

Among the injured, 37 have been transported to other hospitals and the searching for victims buried under debris is still going on.

The explosion happened at 7:15 a.m. local time (1315 GMT) outside the hospital and shattered 40 percent of the buildings in it, which is located in Zone Cuajimalpa, southwest of Mexico City.

The gas tank truck belongs to a company named Gas Expres Nieto. The explosion was caused by gas leak when the truck was offering service to the hospital, local authority said.

Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto expressed his condolences to the victims and their families through his official Twitter account. Endite