At least 71 people are known dead and many more injured after fuel thieves sparked a massive fireball when they tapped into a petrol pipeline in the nation’s impoverished Hidalgo state..

Friday night’s blast near the town of Tlahuelilpan in central Mexico showed badly burned victims and residents scrambling to fill containers from the burst pipe.

Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador has pledged to stamp out fuel theft in the wake of the deadly blast.

WARNING: DISTURBING FOOTAGE

Moment of fatal pipeline explosion in central #Mexicohttps://t.co/Zk72Ef18rE pic.twitter.com/NT6h2TEDfg

— RT (@RT_com) January 19, 2019

The veteran leftist on December 27 ordered pipelines be closed temporarily to stop illegal taps draining billions of dollars from the heavily-indebted state oil firm Petroleos Mexicanos (Pemex).

“Far from stopping the fight … against fuel theft, it’s going to become stronger,” he said, vowing to “eradicated these practices,” Lopez Obrador said.

Video on social media of people filling buckets from the pipeline during daylight hours in the presence of the armed forces prompting questions about why authorities had not acted.

This video is from before the explosion. Soldiers looking on as villagers fill up on gasoline from the illegally tapped pipeline. National media are saying the community had suffered shortages.

Video from the Mexican army.#Tlahuelilpan #explosion pic.twitter.com/oHdfXBWbua

— John Holman (@johnholman100) January 19, 2019

The government said soldiers reached the scene after Pemex detected the illegal tap but could not secure the area in time.

“At some point there were too many people there and the army and military personnel withdrew to avoid problems,” Public Security Minister Alfonso Durazo told broadcaster Televisa.

“It was just as they were withdrawing that the explosion occurred.”

Aerial footage on Mexican television showed what appeared to be smouldering corpses scattered near the blaze.

Lopez Obrador says his shutdown greatly reduced theft but it sparked fears for the economy, as well as triggering shortfalls in central Mexico, including Hidalgo.

The damage also raised the prospect of a new setback in the government’s bid to restore fuel supply.

-with AAP