CANCUN, Mexico - New evidence suggests a gas line leak probably caused the Nov. 14 explosion that killed five Canadians at a hotel on Mexico's Caribbean coast, Mexican prosecutors said Tuesday.
The attorney general of Quintana Roo, the state where the Grand Riviera Princess Resort is located, said investigators found an unauthorized extension of a gas line under the hotel lounge where the blast occurred.
Attorney General Francisco Alor said the line had apparently been damaged and leaked prior to the blast.
Local authorities initially said swamp gases produced by rotting vegetable matter trapped beneath the hotel might have triggered the blast, and later suggested an accumulation of sewage gases may have been a contributing factor.
Alor said Tuesday that those may have contributed, but the heating-gas line appears to be the main culprit and may have been set off by a spark from an electric switch or plug.
The explosion blew out windows in the hotel's lounge area and left behind a metre-deep crater.
The five Canadians killed in the blast were Malcolm Johnson of Prince George, B.C.; Chris Charmont of Drumheller, Alta., and his nine-year-old son, John; Darlene Ferguson, 51, of Edmonton; Elgin Barron of Guelph, Ont. Eighteen others, many of them from Ontario, were injured.
A Mexican hotel bartender and a guard also died.
The 676-room hotel has reportedly been fined nearly half a million dollars for construction violations. The authorities say the original building plans filed to obtain construction permits did not match the completed structure.
