Scores killed in Sierra Leone tanker explosion

Reuters Videos
3 年前

Scores were killed in Sierra Leone on Friday (November 5) when a fuel tanker exploded following a collision.

Deputy Health Minister Amara Jambai said the death toll currently stands at 99 with more than 100 people being treated in hospitals and clinics across the capital Freetown.

In a video from the scene, shared online, the head of the National Disaster Management Agency, Brima Bureh Sisay, said "We've got so many casualties, burnt corpses" adding "It's a terrible, terrible accident."

High death tolls in such incidents in sub-Saharan Africa have been attributed to people gathering at sites to collect spilled fuel and then being hit by secondary blasts.

A tanker explosion in Tanzania in 2019 killed 85 people.

A similar disaster in Democratic Republic of Congo the year before claimed around 50 lives.

Freetown's mayor said the extent of the damage from Friday's explosion was not yet known adding that police and her deputy were at the scene to assist disaster management officials.