A gas leak caused an explosion in a restaurant in northern Mexico near the US border on Saturday, killing at least 14 people as the building collapsed on breakfast diners, authorities said.
TV images showed rescue workers and local residents using their hands to pick through rubble seeking more victims from the blast at the restaurant in the town of Nuevo Progreso, two blocks from an international bridge crossing to Texas.
The blast also ripped open the front facades of other neighbouring buildings, images showed. Rescue workers worked with tractors to dig into the collapsed building.
"For the moment there are 14 dead, and we don't have an exact figure for the injured as some were passers-by. They were not in the restaurant," said Red Cross spokesman Jorge Alberto Lopez. "We are moving rubble to see if we find anyone else."
"The building collapsed and glass damaged other businesses," police radio operator Santiago Ibanez told local radio.