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At the least 99 individuals have been killed when a gasoline tanker exploded in Sierra Leone.
Victims included individuals who had flocked to gather gasoline leaking from the ruptured automobile.
The mayor stated the extent of the harm in Freetown was not but clear.
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At the least 99 individuals had been killed and greater than 100 injured within the capital of Sierra Leone late on Friday when a gasoline tanker exploded following a collision, native authorities stated.Gasoline nonetheless seemed to be leaking from the wrecked tanker on Saturday morning as police and troopers tried to clear giant crowds of onlookers from the road, based on a Reuters reporter.A burnt human physique and the blackened shells of a number of vehicles and motorbikes dotted the highway within the japanese Freetown suburb of Wellington, the place tons of had gathered.The dying toll presently stands at 99 with greater than 100 casualties being handled in hospitals and clinics throughout the capital, deputy well being minister Amara Jambai instructed Reuters.
Victims included individuals who had flocked to gather gasoline leaking from the ruptured automobile, Yvonne Aki-Sawyerr, mayor of the port metropolis, stated initially in a publish on Fb that was later edited to take away the reference.”We have so many casualties, burnt corpses,” stated Brima Bureh Sesay, head of the Nationwide Catastrophe Administration Company, in a video from the scene shared on-line. “It is a horrible, horrible accident.”Movies shared on-line shortly after the explosion confirmed individuals operating by clouds of thick smoke as giant fires lit up the evening sky. Reuters was not in a position instantly to confirm the photographs.Accidents with tanker vans in Sub-Saharan Africa have beforehand killed scores of people that gathered on the website to gather spilled gasoline and had been hit by secondary blasts.
In 2019, a tanker explosion in Tanzania killed 85 individuals, whereas round 50 individuals had been killed in an identical catastrophe in Democratic Republic of Congo in 2018.The mayor stated the extent of the harm in Freetown was not but clear.”My profound sympathies with households who’ve misplaced family members and people who have been maimed in consequence,” President Julius Maada Bio tweeted.”My Authorities will do every part to assist affected households.”
(Reporting by Umaru Fofana in Freetown and Bhargav Acharya in Bengaluru;Writig by Bhargav Acharya and Alessandra PrenticeEditing by Clarence Fernandez, Frances Kerry and Giles Elgood)
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