A mother cried frantically as she asked people outside the collapsed city-run Maternity and Children's Hospital of Cuajimalpa whether they knew anything about her month-old baby, who had been hospitalized with respiratory problems.
"They wouldn't let me sleep with him," said Felicitas Hernandez, 35 to the Associated Press, who said she had not been allowed to sleep over with her infant.
"There were moms who had recently given birth who were asking for their newborns,” said Pablo Armando Reyes Olivares, one of the many area residents who ran into the hospital shortly after the explosion shortly after 7am on Thursday. Reyes Olivares, who posted some video on Facebook, told NBC News he helped take some infants and adults out of the rubble.
"We are destroyed," said Reyes Olivares. "Estamos de luto," (we are in mourning) he said.
As of Thursday afternoon authorities had officially declared 2 dead - a woman and a child - though there were reports of over 60 injuries.
"When I arrived and saw it in pieces, I thought the worst," said 22-year-old Miguel Angel Garcia said, whose wife and daugher were at the hospital. After an hour of uncertainty he was told his family was at a nearby hospital and they were fine.
The explosion happened as the hospital's gas supplies were being refilled.
The explosion - and the fact it took place in a infant and children's hospital - drew swift reaction outside Mexico. Pope Francis tweeted that he was praying for the victims and their families.
--The AP contributed to this report.