Explosion kills 92 and leaves more than 100 injured in Sierra Leone ‘after they rushed to get fuel from leaking tanker’ which had crashed but then went up in flames

• Government has not confirmed the official death toll, but 91 bodies found so far
• Further 100 casualties have been admitted for treatment at hospitals and clinics
• Images shared widely online showed several badly burned victims in the streets
• Accidents with tanker trucks in Sub-Saharan Africa have previously killed scores of people who gathered at the site to collect spilled fuel and hit by second blasts 

Ninety-two people were killed and over 100 wounded in the capital of Sierra Leone on Friday when a fuel tanker exploded following a collision, authorities said today.

The explosion took place in the early hours after a bus struck the tanker in Wellington, a suburb just to the east of Freetown. It is believed people rushed to get fuel from the leaking tanker after the collision, before it exploded. 

The government has not yet confirmed the death toll, but the mortuary at Connaught Hospital reported 92 bodies had been brought in by Saturday morning. 

A further 100 casualties have been admitted for treatment at hospitals and clinics across the capital, deputy health minister Amara Jambai told Reuters. 

About 30 severely burned victims were not expected to survive, according to staffer Foday Musa. 

Ninety-one people were killed and over 100 wounded in the capital of Sierra Leone on Friday when a fuel tanker exploded following a collision, the central morgue and local authorities said. Pictured: A group of people are seen gathering near the flames in the aftermath of the explosion in a photo shared by Sierra Leone’s president Julius Maada

People look on at a pile of burnt motorbikes in the aftermath of a fuel tanker explosion in Freetown on November 6, 2021. – A fuel Tanker exploded at PMB Wellington Industrial Estate east of Freetown on November 5, 2021, killing over 90 people

Victims included people who had flocked to collect fuel leaking from the ruptured vehicle, Yvonne Aki-Sawyerr, mayor of the port city, said initially in a post on Facebook that was later edited to remove the reference.

‘We’ve got so many casualties, burnt corpses,’ said Brima Bureh Sesay, head of the National Disaster Management Agency, in a video from the scene shared online. ‘It’s a terrible, terrible accident.’

Images shared widely online showed several badly burned victims lying on the streets as fire blazed through shops and houses nearby. Reuters was not able immediately to verify the images.

Video obtained by The Associated Press showed a giant fireball burning in the night sky following the explosion, as some survivors with severe burns cried out in pain. 

A nurse at a hospital where the victims were taken confirmed the number of dead to new agencies, adding he had also tended to many women, men and children with ‘serious injuries’. 

According to witnesses, the accident happened when a vehicle caught fire in a petrol station after a road accident.

The flames then spread in the area, burning people in cars and on roads nearby.

Sierra Leone’s Vice President Mohamed Juldeh Jalloh had arrived on site on Saturday after being in Scotland attending the United Nations climate talks Saturday. 

He deplored the ‘horrendous loss of life’ and shared a picture from the scene.

The government has not yet confirmed the death toll of the explosion, but the manager of the central state morgue in Freetown said it had received 91 bodies following the explosion. Pictured: People look at burned-out vehicles after the explosion

Images shared widely online showed several badly burned victims lying on the streets as fire blazed through shops and houses nearby

Vice President Mohamed Juldeh Jalloh visited two hospitals overnight and said tSierra Leone’s National Disaster Management Agency and others would ‘work tirelessly’ in the wake of the emergency.

‘We are all deeply saddened by this national tragedy, and it is indeed a difficult time for our country,’ he said on his Facebook page.  

Accidents with tanker trucks in Sub-Saharan Africa have previously killed scores of people who gathered at the site to collect spilled fuel and were hit by secondary blasts. 

In 2019, a tanker explosion in eastern Tanzania killed 85 people, while around 50 people were killed in a similar disaster in Democratic Republic of Congo in 2018.

The mayor said that the extent of the damage in Freetown was not yet clear, adding that police and her deputy were at the scene to assist disaster management officials.

‘My profound sympathies with families who have lost loved ones and those who have been maimed as a result,’ President Julius Maada Bio tweeted.

‘My Government will do everything to support affected families.’ 

Source: Read Full Article