NAIROBI, Kenya
At least 13 people were killed when a petrol tanker overturned and caught fire in western Kenya at the weekend.
The truck collided with another vehicle
on a highway between Kisumu and Busia late on saturday. Witnesses described the
crash scene as a "huge fireball".
People had rushed to the scene with
jerrycans to siphon off fuel from the overturned tanker before it exploded.
A local police chief said 24 people were
in hospital with serious burns and said children were among the injured.
Investigators are still searching the
scene and warned the death toll could rise.
"We will require a proper
examination to determine if there were people burnt completely at the scene,
where bones were found," Chief Charles Chacha said.
It took two hours for firefighters to
reach the scene, near the town of Malanga, about 320km (200 miles) north-west
of the capital, Nairobi.
A lorry carrying milk travelling in the
opposite direction had collided with the petrol tanker.
Witnesses said several motorcycles were
found smouldering close to the crash site.
One of the injured, Wycliffe Otieno, told
AFP news agency how he and others had arrived with jerrycans when the spilled
fuel around him ignited.
"I was able to run to safety. I just
don't know how lucky I was, because I have been told the people we were with
did not survive," Mr Otieno said from his hospital bed.
Footage posted on social media showed the
fiery wreckage lighting up the local sky as survivors stood nearby.
Road accidents are not unusual in the
East Africa nation, where lorries and other vehicles often speed along single
carriage highways - some unlit at night, says the BBC's Mercy Juma in Nairobi.
About 3,000 people die in road collisions
in Kenya each year.
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