On Friday, a fuel truck exploded following a collision in Sierra Leone’s capital, killing more than 91 people, according to the central mortuary and local officials.
The death toll from a fuel tanker explosion has risen to 92, according to AFP, quoting the vice president of the Western African country. The majority of the people were there, according to the report, to collect leaking fuel from the tanker.
The death toll has not yet been confirmed by the government, but the manager of the central state mortuary in Freetown stated 91 bodies had been received as a result of the incident.
People who had flocked to collect petrol escaping from the damaged car were among the victims, according to Yvonne Aki-Sawyerr, the port city’s mayor, in a Facebook post.
In a video from the site, Brima Bureh Sesay, the chairman of the National Disaster Management Agency, said, “We’ve got so many casualties, burnt corpses.” “It was a horrible, horrific accident,” says the narrator.
Several badly burned victims were seen laying on the streets while fires raged close in shops and buildings, according to images widely circulated on the internet. The photographs could not be verified right away by Reuters.
President Julius Maada Bio tweeted, “My deepest sympathy to families who have lost loved ones and those who have been maimed as a result.”
“My government will do everything possible to assist the families who have been impacted.”
