MONROVIA, Liberia
More than 40 people have been killed and dozens badly burned when a petrol tanker exploded in central Liberia, the country’s chief medical officer has said.
Witnesses said people
clambered on to the lorry to try collect petrol leaking from its tank after it
crashed and tipped into a ditch along a road in Totota, about 130 kilometres
(80 miles) from the capital Monrovia on Tuesday.
Local Aaron Massaquoi told AFP
that “some of them had irons hitting the tanker for it to burst for them to get
gas.
“People were all around the
truck and the driver of the truck told them that they could take the gas that
was spilling,” Massaquoi said.
“He told them not to climb on
top of the tanker and that they should stop hitting the tanker …. but some
people were even using screwdrivers to put holes on the tank.”
The grisly task of
establishing the death toll has been made more difficult because the victims
were so badly burned, said Liberia’s chief medical officer Francis Kateh.
He told AFP that his teams were “going door-to-door to establish the number of missing people”.
Liberia is the tenth poorest
country in the world, with more than half its five million people living in
often dire poverty.
President George Weah, the
former AC Milan striker who is due to step down as head of state on 22 January,
sent his “profoundest sympathy” to the families of victims.
“So far more than 40 deaths
have been recorded,” the presidency said in a statement.
“It is reported that some
locals in the area attempted to scoop the contents of the trapped tanker when
the explosion happened,” it added.
Police initially thought about
15 people had died with another 30 hurt, but the death toll has shot up since.
“There were lots of people that got burned,” said Prince B Mulbah, deputy
inspector general for the Liberia national police.
Another police officer, Malvin
Sackor, said some locals were collecting the leaking petrol when the tanker
exploded.
Chief medical officer Kateh
said dozens had been badly burned.
Among the “patients most badly
hurt are children and a pregnant woman”, local health chief Cynthia Blapooh
told the newspaper Front Page Africa.
“Dozens of injured people from
the incident have been transported to various hospitals,” the presidential
statement confirmed.
“The President has said health
authorities have got his full backing to beef up manpower and equipment where
necessary in their frantic attempt to save lives.”
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