President Enrique Pena Nieto and Mexico City Mayor Miguel Angel Mancera, who visited the scene of the blast, said Pemex rescue and security teams were working alongside city authorities to help the injured.
But Republican challenger Bob Dole, who is trailing badly in pre-election polls and for whom no issue seems to be working, seized on the Riady revelations to blast foreign "influence-peddling" in the Clinton administration.
Baay was working near the building at the time of the blast, and ran over to start digging into the rubble with his bare hands to try to rescue those trapped beneath.