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Death toll hits 41 in Mexico daycare center blaze

(Agencies)
Updated: 2009-06-08 10:01

MEXICO CITY -- The death toll from a daycare center blaze in Mexico's northern Sonora state has risen to 41, officials said on Sunday.

Relatives of three-year-old Miguel Angel Valdes, a victim of the June 5 fire at a day-care centre, mourn during his funeral service at the municipal cementery in Hermosillo, in the Mexican state of Sonora June 7, 2009. [Agencies]

There were some 142 children and six staff members in the privately-run center when the fire occurred on Friday.

Related readings:  Deaths in Mexico day-care fire rise to 38 children  29 kids killed in fire at Mexico day care

The death toll has gone up to 38 as of Saturday. Most of the victims reportedly died from smoke inhalation and the injured adults included staff members at the daycare center and people who tried to help.

A baby was among the three new deaths. His parents had ordered artificial respiration to be stopped after the child was declared brain dead.

Some 38 people have been hospitalized in Sonora, among whom 22 are in delicate condition, local public health officials said.

A fire at a nearby warehouse leased by the state government spread to the center and caused the tragedy, and firefighters spent two hours putting the blaze under control.

Mexican President Felipe Calderon, who visited hospitalized children on Saturday night, ordered the nation's attorney general to investigate what he called "the tragedy that has the nation grieving."

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