Security forces take steps at the blast website after a fuel tanker took off and eliminated lots in Wellington district of Freetown, Sierra Leone on November 6, 2021.
Vidal Sesay|Anadolu Agency by means of Getty Images
Ninety- one individuals were eliminated and over 100 injured in the capital of Sierra Leone on Friday when a fuel tanker took off following a crash, the main morgue and regional authorities stated.
The federal government has not yet verified the death toll, however the supervisor of the main state morgue in Freetown stated it had actually gotten 91 bodies following the surge.
An additional 100 casualties have actually been confessed for treatment at healthcare facilities and centers throughout the capital, deputy health minister Amara Jambai informed Reuters.
Victims consisted of individuals who had actually gathered to gather fuel dripping from the burst lorry, Yvonne Aki-Sawyerr, mayor of the port city, stated at first in a post on Facebook that was later on modified to eliminate the referral.
“We’ve got so many casualties, burnt corpses,” stated 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 commonly online revealed numerous terribly burned victims resting on the streets as fire blazed through stores and homes close by. Reuters was unable instantly to validate the images.
Accidents with tanker trucks in Sub-Saharan Africa have actually formerly eliminated ratings of individuals who collected at the website to gather spilled fuel and were struck by secondary blasts.
In 2019, a tanker surge in eastern Tanzania eliminated 85 individuals, while around 50 individuals were eliminated in a comparable catastrophe in Democratic Republic of Congo in 2018.
The mayor stated that the level of the damage in Freetown was not yet clear, including that cops and her deputy were at the scene to help catastrophe management authorities.
“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.”
