39 Die in Fire at Mexican Migrant Center Near US Border

At least 39 migrants died after a fire broke out late Monday at a migrant facility in the Mexican northern border city of Ciudad Juarez, the government's National Migration Institute (INM) said Tuesday.

In a statement, the INM said 68 adult men from Central and South America were staying at the facility and that 29 of them were also injured in the blaze and taken to four hospitals in the area.

A Reuters witness saw bodies lined up in body bags and confirmed that the fire, whose origins are under investigation, had been extinguished. Many of the migrants at the facility were Venezuelan, according to the Reuters witness.

The fire, one of the deadliest to hit the country in years, occurred as the U.S. and Mexico are battling to cope with record levels of border crossings at their shared frontier.