Explosion of an offshore gas platform in Mexico.

Two people are dead and a third is missing after an explosion and fire on a gas platform in the Gulf of Mexico, Mexican authorities have reported.

“Two people are dead and another is missing,” said the head of state-owned Petroleos mexicanos (Pemex), Octavio Romero, in a video posted on social networks.

Offshore gas explosion in the Gulf of Mexico: two dead and one missing

The victims were employees of an external company carrying out work on the platform, he added. A total of 328 people were working on the platform, 321 of whom were evacuated, Pemex said in a statement.

Earlier, President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador had also spoken of the “disappeared”, without specifying further, during his traditional daily press conference. In addition, the President showed photos of a column of flames and smoke on the platform off the coast of Campeche and Tabasco (southeast).

“Pemex firefighters and the navy are on site,” he added.

Several accidents have affected Pemex facilities in recent months. On February 24, a dozen workers were injured by burns in two fires in the southeastern state of Veracruz. The public company’s infrastructures are also exposed to fuel theft. In January 2019, 137 people died in a pipeline explosion and fire in Tlahuelilpan, in the central state of Hidalgo. The authorities blamed fuel thieves for the tragedy.