Terrible terrible accident Nearly 100 people dead after Sierra Leone tanker blast
Victims included people who had flocked to collect fuel leaking from the ruptured vehicle, Yvonne Aki-Sawyerr, mayor of the port city, said in a post on Facebook, although that post was later edited to remove the reference.
A general view of a burned vehicle in the aftermath of the explosion Source: EPA
"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."
Videos shared online shortly after the explosion showed people running through clouds of thick smoke as large fires lit up the night sky. Reuters was not able immediately to verify the images.
The crash provided a major challenge for Freetown's health service already creaking from years of underfunding. The 2014-2016 Ebola epidemic gutted its ranks of medical staff, 250 of whom died, and the system has not recovered.
Connaught Hospital was overwhelmed with the influx of patients, so some of the injured were moved to other locations, including a military hospital, said Swaray Lengor, a program manager at the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies.
Sierra Leone residents of Freetown react after the explosion Source: EPA
"The situation at the hospital, especially Connaught hospital ... is overwhelming. Inadequate medical consumables and bed capacity," Mr Lengor told Reuters via text. "NGO partners were requested to support with equipment, medical commodities and food."
The death toll would likely rise, he said.
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 Tanzania killed 85 people, while around 50 people were killed in a similar disaster in Democratic Republic of Congo in 2018.
"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."
0 Response to "Terrible terrible accident Nearly 100 people dead after Sierra Leone tanker blast"
Post a Comment