99 Dead, Dozens More Injured In Sierra Leone Oil Tanker Explosion
At least 99 people have lost their lives and more than 100 people injured after oil tanker explodes in Sierra Leone late on Friday.
As at Saturday morning, fuel still appeared to be leaking from the wrecked tanker as police and soldiers tried to clear large crowds of onlookers from the street.
According to a report from Reuters, the explosion occurred after a bus collided with a tanker in Wellington, a suburb east of Freetown. It was told at the mortuary of Connaught Hospital that 92 bodies had been brought till Saturday morning. According to Fode Moses, a staff member in the intensive care unit, about 30 victims of severe burns were not expected to survive.
The injured people whose clothes were burnt in the post-explosion fire lay naked on stretchers as nurses looked after them on Saturday. Hundreds of people waited outside the main entrance of the morgue and near the main entrance of the hospital, waiting for the word of their loved ones.
It was not immediately known how many people were undergoing treatment for burns as patients were taken to hospitals and clinics in the metropolitan area.
Video obtained by the Associated Press after the explosion showed a giant fireball burning in the night sky, while some seriously injured people moaned in pain. The charred remains of the victims are scattered at the scene awaiting transportation to the mortuary.
President Julius Mada Bio, who was in Scotland to attend UN climate talks on Saturday, expressed regret at the “horrific loss of life”.
He tweeted, “My deepest sympathies to the families who have lost loved ones and who have been crippled as a result.”
Vice President Mohamed Zuldeh Jaloh visited two hospitals overnight and said Sierra Leone’s National Disaster Management Agency and others would “work tirelessly” in the wake of the emergency.
“We are all deeply saddened by this national tragedy, and this is indeed a difficult time for our country,” he said on his Facebook page.
This is so sad! Our profound sympathies with families who have lost loved ones in this incident.
