Gas alert sparked by skunk spray

A strong "toxic smell" which led to the evacuation of two Mexican schools over gas leak fears turns out to have been produced by a skunk, officials say.

Security officers from the state-owned oil firm Pemex were called in to deal with the suspected leak in Nanchintal, in the eastern state of Veracruz.

Experts from the local petrochemical plant said they inspected the schools and gas pipelines but found no leak.

They said they had finally traced the smell to a skunk kept in a school lab.

However, the mayor of Nanchintal, a town of 28,000 inhabitants, accused Pemex of a cover-up.

The Tabasco Hoy newspaper quoted Francisco Leon Ocejo Meza as saying there had been a "toxic cloud" which he blamed on Pemex's activities.