WEB DESK
At least 91 people died and dozens more injured after a massive explosion in Sierra Leone’s capital, Freetown. The blast happened after a 40-feet long oil tanker collided with another vehicle at a busy junction in the city.
Freetown Mayor Yvonne Aki-Sawyerr described the incident harrowing, but said the scale of the damage was not yet clear. In a post on Facebook, she said, there were rumours that more than 100 people have lost their lives, although there is as yet no official death toll. The state-run morgue has received 91 bodies so far, its manager told news agencies.
The explosion is believed to have happened at a junction outside the busy Choithram Supermarket in the Wellington region of the city at around 22.00 GMT yesterday.
The port city, which is home to just over a million people, has faced several serious disasters in recent years.
In March, more than 80 people were injured after a major fire in one of the city’s slums left more than 5,000 people displaced. And in 2017 over 1,000 people were killed after heavy rains led to a mudslide that swept through the city, leaving around 3,000 people homeless.