At Least 98 People Dead Following Sierra Leone Fuel Tanker Explosion

At least 98 people were killed and several others were injured following an oil tanker explosion in Sierra Leone on Friday, the Associated Press reports. 

The National Disaster Management Agency reported that the tanker collided with a truck in Wellington, which is east of capital Freetown, near a busy intersection by a gas station. 

“Both drivers came out of their vehicles and warned community residents to stay off the scene while trying to address a leakage emanating from the collision,” the agency said.

After people began to rush over to collect the leaking fuel, it then ignited and a massive explosion followed, witnesses said. Officials share that nearly 100 people were injured and taken to local hospitals, as the AP reports a video of the incident showing a “giant fireball burning in the night sky.” Roughly 30 people who were severely burned at Connaught Hospital were not expected to survive, per staff member Foday Musa.

“He left home and said he was going to buy bread for us to eat,”Osman Timbo, whose 13-year-old brother Mohamed died, said. “When I heard about the explosion, I went to the scene and I saw my younger brother lying down and he was burned all over. I felt so bad. I loved him so much.”

President Julius Maada Bio called the incident a “horrendous loss of life,” sharing his “profound sympathies with families who have lost loved ones and those who have been maimed as a result” on Twitter.