Fuel Tanker Explosion Rocks Sierra Leone, Kills at Least 98

• Fuel tanker explosion rocks Sierra Leone kills at least 98

• Authorities have taken injured individuals to hospitals and retrieved the remains

EKO HOT BLOG reports that according to authorities in Sierra Leone, at least 98 people were killed on Friday when a petrol tanker exploded in a suburb of the capital, Freetown.

Several persons were in serious condition after the incident, according to Mohamed Lamrane Bah, director of communications for Sierra Leone’s National Disaster Management Agency (NDMA).

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Authorities have taken injured individuals to hospitals and retrieved the remains, and the rescue operation has come to a conclusion, according to Bah.

The explosion occurred after two vehicles collided on the highway while the fuel tanker was about to enter a nearby filling station to discharge its fuel, the NDMA said in a statement posted to Facebook on Saturday afternoon.

“Footage and eyewitnesses intimated that while the collision took place, both drivers came out of their vehicles and warned community residents to stay off the scene while trying to address a leakage emanating from the collision,” the statement said. It added that while that was happening, “some community members rushed to the scene and took advantage of the leakage to scoop fuel and store it in nearby makeshift structures.”

“In the cause of scooping the fuel, there was a major explosion that resulted in the fire disaster that occurred,” it said.

The NDMA immediately visited the scene and coordinated emergency response with partners. Ambulances were assembled to take corpses and those in critical situations to various hospitals in Freetown.
There have been 92 people admitted to hospitals within Freetown, the NDMA statement said.

Freetown Mayor Yvonne Aki-Sawyerr said in a statement on Facebook that she was “saddened to hear about an explosion along Bai Bureh Road, Wellington, after a truck carrying fuel collided with another truck.”

“The video and photo footage making rounds on social media are harrowing,” Aki-Sawyerr added.
“My sympathies go out to the families and loved ones of the victims of the explosion. May the souls of the departed rest in perfect peace.”

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