President, mayor express sadness, offer support
\n FREETOWN
\nAt least 99 people were killed and more than 100 injured in the capital of Sierra Leone late on Friday when a fuel tanker exploded following a collision, local authorities said.
\nFuel still appeared to be leaking from the wrecked tanker on Saturday morning as police and soldiers tried to clear large crowds of onlookers from the street, according to a Reuters reporter.
\nA burnt human body and the blackened shells of several cars and motorbikes dotted the road in the eastern Freetown suburb of Wellington, where hundreds had gathered.
\nThe death toll currently stands at 99 with more than 100 casualties being treated in hospitals and clinics across the capital, deputy health minister Amara Jambai told Reuters.
\nVictims included people who had flocked to collect fuel leaking from the ruptured vehicle, Yvonne Aki-Sawyerr, mayor of the port city, said initially in a post on Facebook that was later edited to remove the reference.
\n\u201cWe\u2019ve got so many casualties, burnt corpses,\u201d said Brima Bureh Sesay, head of the National Disaster Management Agency, in a video from the scene shared online. \u201cIt\u2019s a terrible, terrible accident.\u201d Videos shared online shortly after the explosion showed people running through clouds of thick smoke as large fires lit up the night sky. Reuters was not able immediately to verify the images.
\nAccidents with tanker trucks in Sub-Saharan Africa have previously killed scores of people who gathered at the site to collect spilled fuel and were hit by secondary blasts.
\nIn 2019, a tanker explosion in Tanzania killed 85 people, while around 50 people were killed in a similar disaster in Democratic Republic of Congo in 2018.
\nThe mayor said the extent of the damage in Freetown was not yet clear.
\n\u201cMy profound sympathies with families who have lost loved ones and those who have been maimed as a result,\u201d President Julius Maada Bio tweeted.
\n\u201cMy Government will do everything to support affected families.\u201d
\nReporting by Umaru Fofana in Freetown and Bhargav Acharya in Bengaluru; Writig by Bhargav Acharya and Alessandra Prentice Editing by Clarence Fernandez, Frances Kerry and Giles Elgood<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
President, mayor express sadness, offer support FREETOWN At least 99 people were killed and more than 100 injured in the capital of Sierra Leone late on Friday when a fuel tanker exploded following a collision, local authorities said. Fuel still appeared to be leaking from the wrecked tanker on Saturday morning as police and soldiers […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":225874,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-225854","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world"},"yoast_head":"\n