Many additionally injured as overturned petrol tanker explodes in west Kenya when crowds thronged to gather the spilling gas.
Police mentioned 13 folks had been killed and lots of others significantly burned when an overturned petrol tanker exploded in western Kenya as crowds thronged to gather the spilling gas.
The gas truck collided with one other car and toppled over late on Saturday close to Malanga, some 315km (195 miles) northwest of Nairobi, on the busy freeway between Kisumu and the border with Uganda.
Onlookers rushed to the scene with jerrycans however the cargo exploded, engulfing these round in a fireball.
“It burst into flames as they scooped gas that was flowing,” mentioned Charles Chacha, an area police chief in Siaya County the place the accident occurred, on Sunday.
“We counted twelve our bodies on the scene. One other individual died in hospital from their accidents.”
Fireplace crews arrived on the scene two hours later to douse the inferno whereas these injured within the blast had been taken to hospital.
“Many others have been taken to hospital with critical burns they usually embody younger youngsters,” Chacha mentioned.
The reason for the explosion isn’t but identified.
Photos broadcast by Kenyan media confirmed the blazing tanker lighting up the night time sky and within the morning following, crowds gaping on the twisted, smouldering wreckage.
Lethal gas truck accidents alongside perilous roads are usually not unusual in Kenya and the broader East Africa area.
Regardless of warnings from authorities of the risks of siphoning after the deaths of tons of in earlier incidents, many Kenyans proceed to do it as a result of they’re pressed by poverty.
In 2009, no less than 120 folks had been killed after an enormous crowd descended on an overturned gasoline tanker, which then blew up. However poverty-stricken households say they’ve little alternative: spiralling meals and gas costs imply many can’t feed their youngsters.