Deadly firework accidents around the world

PARIS, France - Fireworks are used all over the world in times of celebration -- but deadly accidents involving pyrotechnics, like the huge explosion that hit Mexico City, are all too common.

- Deadliest accidents -

Peru witnessed the worst such accident of the last two decades in December 2001, when a massive fire sparked by fireworks ripped through a busy shopping area in downtown Lima, leaving 447 dead and missing and more than a hundred others injured.

In December 2009, 156 people were killed in a blaze ignited by fireworks set off inside a nightclub in the Russian city of Perm.

A massive explosion during a banned fireworks display at a Hindu temple complex in India's Kerala state left 112 people dead in April this year, while in the United States, a pyrotechnic show in the town of West Warwick set off a fire in February 2003 that killed nearly 100.

- Frequent blasts in China -

Fireworks were invented in China, and the country remains the biggest producer and consumer of firecrackers and fireworks for use during weddings, sporting events, concerts and above all for the New Year, when they are believed to ward off evil spirits.

Accidents happen regularly, especially in firework factories where safety norms are little respected.

In July last year 15 people were killed and a dozen others injured when an illegal stockpile of fireworks exploded in Hebei, northern China.

The country's worst such disaster over the last two decades came in 2000 when 75 people were killed and 160 injured in a factory explosion in Jiangmen in the southern province of Guangdong.

- Not a first for Mexico -

Mexico had seen several tragedies of this kind before Tuesday's explosion.

At least 56 people were killed and 348 injured in September 1999 at an illegal fireworks plant in the northwestern city of Celaya.

On New Year's Eve 2002, a powerful explosion at a warehouse in the Mexican gulf city of Veracruz -- where gunpowder was being stored near a makeshift fireworks market for New Year festivities -- killed at least 28 people and gutted dozens of stores.

In March 2013, 17 people were killed and dozens injured when a truck loaded with fireworks exploded during a religious procession in the central village of Nativitas. — Agence France-Presse