Freetown, November 7 (BNA): At least 99 people were killed and more than 100 injured in the capital, Sierra Leone, late Friday night when a fuel tanker exploded following a collision, local authorities said.
Emergency crews evacuated the scene on Saturday in the eastern Freetown suburb of Wellington, as a charred body and shells from black cars and motorbikes blocked the road in the wake of the accident, Reuters reported.
Deputy Health Minister Amara Gambai said the wounded were treated at hospitals and clinics across the capital.
Yvonne Aki Sawyer, the mayor of the coastal city, said in a Facebook post that among the victims were people who had flocked to collect leaking fuel from the wrecked car, although the post was later edited to remove the reference.
“We have a lot of victims and charred bodies,” Prema Pore Sesay, head of the National Disaster Management Agency, said in a video clip from the scene posted online. “It’s a terrible, terrible accident.”
Videos circulating online shortly after the explosion showed people running through clouds of thick smoke as large fires lit up the night sky. Reuters was not immediately able to verify the photos, but witnesses described the horror.
“We are all in shock. A woman I just bought bread from has died. A beautiful woman. I can’t get over this sadness,” said Abdul Qubaia, crying at the crash site, surrounded by rickety cars.
The collapse posed a major challenge to health services in Freetown, which is already suffering from years of underfunding. The 2014-2016 Ebola epidemic devastated the country’s medical staff, 250 of whom died, and the system never recovered.
Swaray Lengor, director of programs at the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, said Connaught Hospital was overwhelmed by an influx of patients, so some of the wounded were shifted to other sites, including a military hospital.
“The situation in the hospital, especially Connaught Hospital… is horrific,” Lingor told Reuters in a text message. “NGO partners were asked to provide support with equipment, medical goods and food.”
He said the death toll is likely to rise.
The World Health Organization said it would send supplies and deploy burn specialists.
“We will provide more support as needed at this difficult time for the people of Sierra Leone,” she said on Twitter.
Tanker truck accidents in sub-Saharan Africa killed dozens of people who had gathered at the site to collect spilled fuel and had secondary explosions.
In 2019, an oil tanker explosion in Tanzania killed 85 people, while about 50 people were killed in a similar disaster in the Democratic Republic of the Congo in 2018.
“My deepest sympathies are with the families who lost loved ones and who have been maimed as a result,” President Julius Maada Bio wrote on Twitter. “My government will do everything to support the affected families.”
HF