Photographs of the scene distributed by the country's National Guard showed burned-out vehicles and single-storey brick and concrete homes with their walls blasted out.

Ana Lucia Hill, the health secretary for the state of Puebla, said the deaths occurred in the hamlet of Santiago Tenango, just east of the state capital - also named Puebla - and about 195km to the southest of the national capital.

The blast occurred late on Monday, and the force of the explosion turned brick-fill walls into heaps of rubble.

It was unclear whether the structure had been a workshop for making fireworks or a store selling them.

Puebla Governor Miguel Barbosa said the business was illegal and unregistered.

By law, permits for such facilities are given out by Mexico's defence department.

Such accidents happen regularly in central Mexico around the September 15 Independence Day and Christmas holidays, when the production and sale of fireworks increases.

A total of 24 people were killed in a 2018 explosion of fireworks in the town of Tultepec, just north of Mexico City, in the worst such blast in recent memory.

Australian Associated Press