Status: 11/6/2021 11:41 a.m.
There was a tank truck explosion in Sierre Leone. There are supposed to be dozens of deaths – the Red Cross speaks of 80 victims. Many of them apparently wanted to collect fuel from the truck.
Dozens of people have died in a tanker truck explosion in Sierra Leone, West Africa, according to local authorities. The head of the state morgue in the capital, Freetown, said he had received 91 dead. The Red Cross speaks of 80 dead.
Many with “serious injuries” in the hospital
“Yesterday evening we recovered 80 bodies at the scene of the accident with our ambulance,” said an employee of the aid organization in the morning of the AFP news agency. The rescue operation continues. A nurse in the responsible hospital confirmed the number of deaths mentioned. In addition, many women, men and children were admitted with “serious injuries”.
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Image: AFP
The government initially did not confirm the exact number of victims. “We have so many victims, burned bodies,” said the head of the National Disaster Management Agency, Brima Bureh Sesay. “It’s a terrible, terrible accident.”
The exact cause of the accident is still unclear: the vehicle is said to have had a collision. Accordingly, a bus had rammed the tanker in Wellington, a suburb east of the capital Freetown. Among the victims were numerous people who apparently wanted to catch fuel that had leaked from the broken truck, said Freetown’s mayor Yvonne Aki-Sawyerr. The full extent of the damage is not yet clear.
President shaken
The Vice President of Sierra Leone, Mohamed Juledh Jalloh, went to the scene of the accident. The President of the West African state, Julius Maada Bio, who was during the accident at the UN climate summit in Glasgow, Scotland, spoke of a “terrible loss of life.” His deepest condolences go to the families who have lost loved ones and those who have been mutilated, he tweeted.