HERMOSILLO, Mexico (Reuters) - The death toll from a fire at a day-care centre in Mexico rose to 41 children on Sunday and a dozen more fought for their lives in hospital.
The northern city of Hermosillo was in mourning after a blaze spread through the ABC day-care centre there on Friday, killing babies and toddlers as parents and employees raced desperately to rescue them.
"In the past few hours three more have died," Sonora state Health Minister Raymundo Lopez told reporters. "Twelve of the 22 hospitalized children are in grave condition."
Pope Benedict sent condolences to the victims' families in a letter to the archbishop of Hermosillo, Jose Ulises Macias, the Vatican said.
Smoke inhalation killed many children, with the victims ranging in age from a few months to three.
It was unclear where or how the fire started, although it may have broken out in a nearby warehouse or a tyre workshop, the government said.
As flames blocked the centre's doorway, employees and neighbours used cars to punch holes through a wall, stumbling over unconscious infants and toddlers as they tried to locate them and get them out, witnesses said.
Mexican President Felipe Calderon has ordered an investigation and toured hospitals in Hermosillo, a city of about 700,000.
At a local cemetery, some 20 children's graves had been dug for funerals on Sunday.
Some severely burnt children have been flown to specialist hospitals, including the Shriners children's hospital in Sacramento, California.
More than 140 children were in the centre when the fire broke out, the government says. The facility had passed its last government inspection in May, Daniel Karam, head of the Mexican agency responsible for health care and social security, said on Saturday.
Calderon rushed medical assistance to overwhelmed medical staff in Hermosillo, 170 miles (270 km) south of the U.S. border, including air ambulances and specialists in reconstructive surgery.
(Editing by Alan Elsner)
