More than 40 people have been reported dead following the explosion of a gas tanker in north-central Liberia.
The fuel truck crashed late on Tuesday in Totota, Lower Bong County, and soon after exploded, killing and injuring many who had flocked to the scene.
Gas tanker explosion has killed at least 40 people in north-central Liberia pic.twitter.com/XzqZxxJHzW
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The country’s chief medical officer, Francis Kateh, told the media on Wednesday that dozens of people are still in hospital with serious burns.
He also revealed that the death toll could rise even further in the coming days.
“We have our team going from home to home to check those that are missing,” he told AFP.
AFP quoted an eyewitness, Aaron Massaquoi, saying that “people climbed all on top of the truck taking the gas, while some of them had irons hitting the tanker for it to burst for them to get gas.”
“People were all around the truck and the driver of the truck told them that the gas that was spilling they could take that,” Massaquoi told AFP.
According to the eyewitness, the tanker driver “told them not to climb on top of the tanker and that they should stop hitting the tanker…. but some people were even using screwdrivers to put holes on the tank.”
The West African sub-region has recorded many of such incidents this year amid poor road safety and weak infrastructure.
Sub-Saharan Africa is the world’s deadliest region for crashes, with the fatality rate three times higher than the European average, United Nations figures showed.
Source: Africafeeds.com
