Nine Mexican states have been placed on high alert after a radioactive material used in medical equipment was stolen. Radioactive substances have been reported stolen or lost several times in Mexico since 2013.
Image: AFP/Getty Images/O. Laban-Mattei
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The head Mexico's national emergency services, Luis Felipe Puente, warned on Monday that an unknown amount of nuclear material used in medical equipment had been stolen from the back of a truck in Tlaquepaque, Jalisco state.
"This was industrial equipment that included Iridium-192... which can be dangerous for people if it is taken out of its container," the interior ministry said in a statement.
The theft prompted an alert and search for material across nine states: Jalisco, Colima, Nayarit, Aguascalientes, Guanajuato, Michoacan San Luis Potosi, Durango and Zacatecas.
Puente urged anyone who uncovers the substance to report it and stressed not to open it. Anyone who finds it should be sure to stay back 30 meters (yards) and immediately contact authorities for help, he said.
Locals take to the streets of Tultepec, Mexico, with homemade floats shaped like bulls - but these elaborate creations are both an explosive tradition and a remembrance of recent tragedy.
Image: picture alliance/abaca/M. Velasquez
Fiery fiesta
Months after a fatal explosion tore through a fireworks market in Tultepec, Mexico, the town honored its patron saint by exploding hundreds of colorful bull figures rigged with fireworks. The blast at the San Pablito pyrotechnics market unleashed a powerful chain-reaction that burst through the market in a cascade of explosions.
Image: Reuters/C. Jasso
Deadly explosion before Christmas
Forty-two people died and 70 were injured when tonnes of fireworks ignited at a market inTultepec, on the northern outskirts of Mexico City a few days before Christmas last year.
Image: picture alliance/dpa/Stringer/EFE
Flamboyant festival for San Juan de Dios
Tultepec returned to its flamboyant but risky ways, marking the Catholic festival of San Juan de Dios, with thousands of revelers running among exploding fireworks and hundreds of giant burning paper bulls.
Image: picture alliance/AP Photo/R. Blackwell
Firework capital of Mexico
Known as the "firework capital of Mexico," the village has specialized in making explosive powder since the 19th century. Local authorities say it exports $4 million (3.8 million euros) worth of fireworks a year to Central America and the United States. Also, an estimated 30,000 people in Tultepec work in the fireworks business.
Image: picture alliance/abaca/M. Velasquez
"Fire, fire!"
Fireworks explode off a wheeled paper bull rigged with fireworks in the middle of the packed town square as delighted revelers yell "Fire, fire!" Firefighters, ambulances and security forces were out in force in case of accidents.
Image: picture alliance/AP Photo/R. Blackwell
Devotion to a dangerous art
Eighteen-year-old local powder maker Uriel Gonzales says: "It's worth the risk of dying for the beauty of the craft." The San Pablito fireworks market has exploded on three occasions over the past 12 years...
