DAR ES SALAAM, Aug 10 (NNN-AGENCIES) — At least 57 people have been killed and 65 injured in a fuel tanker explosion in Tanzania, police say.
Pictures posted online show flaming wreckage scattered over a wide area and charred bodies lying on the ground.
Police said people were trying to recover fuel from the vehicle, which had overturned on a major road some time earlier, when the blast happened.
Majority of the motorcyclists who thronged the accident scene to collect leaking fuel and the food vendors doing their businesses along the Dar es Salaam-Morogoro highway were reportedly burnt beyond recognition.
The incident occurred in Morogoro region, about 200 km west of the port city of Dar es Salaam.
The city of Morogoro is on a major route for transporting cargo and fuel from the port, which is the country’s commercial capital.
There are fears the death toll could rise.
“We have been saddened by reports of an accident involving a fuel truck in Morogoro, which caught fire and burnt several people,” government spokesman Hassan Abbasi said on Twitter.
The accident occurred about 200 metres from the Msanvu Bus Station in Morogoro town.
Eyewitnesses said when the lorry overturned, several people crowded around it to collect leaking fuel but others were simply doing their businesses around the area.
Some have attributed the fire explosion to one person who went there to scramble for fuel while smoking a cigarette.
Last month at least 45 people were killed when a crashed fuel tanker exploded in Nigeria’s northern Benue state. — NNN-AGENCIES