At the least 39 individuals have been killed on Monday evening and 29 others significantly injured when a fireplace broke out at a government-run migration facility in northern Mexico, close to the border with the US, the authorities stated.

The hearth broke out within the lodging space of the Nationwide Migration Institute in Ciudad Juárez, a border metropolis throughout from El Paso, Texas, shortly earlier than 10 p.m., in accordance with a assertion by the ability. Sixty-eight males from Central and South America have been being housed there, it stated.

The Mexican authorities didn’t instantly reply to a request for remark, however in accordance with the assertion from the institute, the 29 injured males have been in severe situation and had been transported to native hospitals for pressing care.

The institute added that it had begun speaking “with consular authorities from completely different international locations” with a view to determine the lifeless. A proper grievance had been lodged with what the assertion recognized because the “corresponding authorities,” clearing the best way for an investigation, the assertion stated.

Tv footage confirmed a swarm of police vehicles, ambulances and different emergency automobiles within the space. What gave the impression to be quite a few our bodies wrapped in massive foil blankets might be seen within the facility’s car parking zone, and other people exterior clung to the perimeter fence as emergency responders tended to the victims.

A number of information shops stated that personnel from the institute had been cracking down on migrants within the metropolis earlier within the day, and that there had been stress on the institute between migrants and the workers.

Ciudad Juárez is likely one of the border communities in Mexico the place migrants from Cuba, Central America and elsewhere wait as they attempt to enter the US. Earlier this month, American officers stopped lots of of migrants, most of them from Venezuela, from coming into the nation after a big group in Ciudad Juárez broke by means of Mexican strains in an try to say asylum in the US.

In December, the US Supreme Courtroom stated {that a} pandemic-era well being measure that restricted migration on the southern border would stay in place in the intervening time. That measure, generally known as Title 42, has allowed migrants who would possibly in any other case qualify for asylum to be swiftly expelled on the border.

The courtroom’s ruling delayed the potential for a big improve in illegal crossings into the U.S. from Mexico. However the measure is scheduled to run out in early Could.

It is a creating story.

Euan Ward and José Bautista contributed reporting.