Mexico hotel blast kills seven
12 April 2012
An explosion today killed five Canadian tourists, including a nine-year-old boy, and two staff at a hotel on Mexico's Caribbean coast.
The blast at the Grand Riviera Princess hotel in Riviera Maya, south of Cancun, blew out windows and hurled paving stones 50 yards onto the lawn.
Some of the Canadians were guests at a wedding and others on a company holiday.
"Everyone said their hotel room shook. The glass at neighbouring restaurants all cracked and blew out. The tiki hut that was in the area, that was on fire," said hotel guest James Gaade, from Ontario, who was walking on the beach when he heard the explosion. "There was a large crater in the area, debris."
Local officials blamed a build-up of gas from a swamp.
