Kurt Chirbas is a senior editor for NBC News based in New York.
Jay Varela contributed .
At least 39 people were killed after a fire broke out at a migration center along the U.S.-Mexico border, officials said Tuesday.
The fire began Monday night at a facility run by the National Migration Institute (INM) in Ciudad Juarez, the institute said in a statement. It said that the dead were "foreign migrants."
Many more were injured, with 21 people taken to four local hospitals, officials told Telemundo affiliate KTDO.
The cause of the fire was not immediately known.
Rescue teams, firefighters and local police were responding to the scene, Telemundo reported.
The facility, in Chihuahua state, is close to the Santa Fe International Bridge and across the border from El Paso, Texas.
The country's prosecutor general has initiated an investigation, Andrea Chávez, federal deputy of Ciudad Juarez, said in a statement on Facebook.
Mexican authorities did not immediately respond to requests for comment from NBC News.
Ciudad Juarez is a major crossing point for migrants attempting to make the journey across the border to the United States.
Its shelters there are full of migrants waiting for opportunities to cross or who are waiting out the asylum process.
This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.
