Explosion kills 13, flattens village in Ghana mining region

Abeti, Jan. 21 (BNA) At least 13 people were killed and dozens injured when a truck carrying explosives blew up at a gold mine in western Ghana, flattening a rural community, police said Friday.

Signs of burnt wood and torn sheet metal house hundreds of homes in Apiate, a settlement about 200 kilometers (130 miles) west of the capital, Accra. Thursday’s eruption created a crater about 20 meters (66 feet) wide. A Reuters reporter at the scene said doors and roofs were smashed from other buildings.

Reuters reported that rescue workers combed the site while excavators dug into larger piles of dirt and debris.

“We have seen unspeakable damage to life and property here,” said Daniel Ado Gyamvi, a student from a nearby mining college who came to volunteer with the response team.

“Yesterday… you could see human remains everywhere.”

Police said about 180 people were wounded in the blast.

In a video apparently filmed by a bystander in Apiate, people can be seen walking toward a roadside fire as a powerful explosion ripped through the settlement.

The cause of the accident was not immediately clear. Police said a motorcycle collided with the truck and then caught fire, and a government statement suggested a roadside power transformer could have played a role.

The truck was owned by a company called Maxam that was transporting the explosives to the Chirano gold mine, which is operated by Toronto-based Kinross Gold (K.TO), the police said.

Kinross said it plans to provide support for response efforts and relief items for those affected. Maxam could not be reached for comment.

Kwesi Ofori, Director of Public Affairs of the Ghana Police, told reporters at the site that the transport of the explosives had followed correct procedures, and the truck was accompanied by a police escort.

He said the police are treating the site as a crime scene during the investigation, without going into details.

The death toll could have been much worse.

Police spokesman Ofori said there was a pause between the collision and the explosion, allowing the driver time to let the community know they were in danger.

Teachers at a nearby school were among the first to know and evacuated the children.

“(The driver) also announced to most of the community to get out, including the motorcycle rider,” Ofori said.

Ofori said the government had said earlier on Friday the death toll had reached 17, and had wrongly counted four people alive but in critical condition.

On a visit to Apiate, near the towns of Bawdie and Bogoso, Vice President Mahamudu Bawumia praised the rescue efforts and said the government is working to create temporary housing for those who have lost their homes.

“We will learn the lessons and those lessons will be later,” he said. “At the moment we are very concerned about how to complete these rescue efforts.”

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