Two killed in explosion at Mexican resort where British dad was shot dead in front of daughter

Restaurant staffers killed in blast prompted by kitchen gas leak

A kitchen gas leak at a Mexican resort led to an explosion that killed two and injured at least 21 people.

The explosion occurred at around 1.30pm on Monday – less than 48 hours after a British businessman was shot dead at the resort in front of his 14-year-old daughter on Saturday.

Mexican authorities said two restaurant employees were killed at Kool Beach in Playa del Carmen, south Cancun. Four of those who were injured were foreigners.

Municipal president Lili Campos noted that the two people that were killed couldn’t be removed because of the risk that the building may collapse.

The 21 people injured were taken to hospitals at the resort.

The Quintana Roo prosecutor’s office tweeted: “The two people who have lost their lives in the explosion at the restaurant in Solidaridad have been identified. Both are males and were workers at the restaurant.”

The office added that eight of those taken to hospitals “have now been allowed to leave. Following on from earlier communications, the cause of the explosion was from a gas leak”.

The identities of those who were injured have not been released. Local media published footage of injured people being carried away on stretchers as visitors on the beach ran for safety.

Members of the Mexican Army and emergency and rescue personnel transfer an injured person near a restaurant where there was an explosion in the kitchen area of a Kool Beach beach club in Playa del Carmen (EPA)

View of rubble after an explosion at a restaurant in the tourist area of Playa Mamitas, in Playa del Carmen, Quintana Roo State, Mexico, on March 14, 2022 (AFP via Getty Images)

Members of the Mexican Army secure an area near a restaurant where there was an explosion in the kitchen area of a Kool Beach beach club in Playa del Carmen, in the state of Quintana Roo, Mexico, 14 March 2022 (EPA)

A spokesman for the regional prosecutor said, “we have launched an inquiry into the explosion caused by a gas leak in the kitchen of a restaurant in the beach area in the municipality of Solidaridad”.

British businessman Chris Cleave was killed at the resort on Saturday when two men on a motorbike shot him close to his home in front of his teenage daughter, according to the Mirror. Mr Cleave, 54, was shot in his vehicle while he was in traffic.

Firefighters work near a restaurant where there was an explosion in the kitchen area of a Kool Beach beach club in Playa del Carmen, in the state of Quintana Roo, Mexico, 14 March 2022 (EPA)

Ahead of the murder, the real estate agent from Cornwall had been threatened by a drug cartel.

There has been a number of recent instances of deadly violence at the resort, with a bar manager from Argentina being shot twice in the head, in addition to two Canadians who were killed during a January shootout.