At least 12 people were killed and 40 injured when a tanker truck exploded near the town of Kindia, east of the Guinean capital, corroborating sources said on Friday.
The blast occurred overnight on Wednesday when the tanker truck crashed into a freight truck that was badly parked at the roadside and difficult to see in the dark, witnesses said.
The truck’s load of about 32 000 litres of petrol spilled on to the road. Residents of the town rushed to the scene of the crash to help victims, and then began to collect the fuel, which exploded in a ball of flame.
Ten people were killed instantly and two others died later of their injuries at Conakry University hospital, newspapers said.
Forty more people were admitted to hospital with various degrees of injury. Thirteen of them were said by the press to be in ”extremely serious” condition. — Sapa-AFP