At least 29 people were killed when a blast ripped through scavengers siphoning petrol from pools around a breach in a disused pipeline in central Iraq late on Monday, health officials said.
A reporter at the rural site near Diwaniya, 180km south of Baghdad, saw 15 charred bodies, including that of a boy. The explosion severely wounded 26 people.
”Some of the wounded have burns on 75% of their bodies,” Hamid Jaafi, a health official in Diwaniya told Reuters, adding the death toll is expected to climb.
A police source said more than 50 were killed, although that figure could not be confirmed. Witnesses said the blast occurred at 11pm, while a group of impoverished people were scooping fuel from two large pools.
The cause of the blast is still under investigation, officials said. But it does not appear connected to violence in Diwaniya on Monday, when at least 20 Iraqi soldiers were killed in street fighting with Shi’ite militia, some of the bloodiest clashes among rival powers in Shi’ite southern Iraq.
Mutilated and mud-caked bodies lay by a crater at least 10m wide. One witness said there were still bodies in the pools and under mud that had not been recovered.
”The government is to blame for this. It raised the prices of petrol and forced people to do these dangerous things,” an elderly man told Reuters at the scene.
A fuel crisis is gripping the oil-rich country, and many Iraqis are desperate for petrol. Fuel prices have soared as the Iraqi government phases out subsidies under an International Monetary Fund deal, angering Iraqis.
Some officials blame widespread smuggling and corruption for shortages and high prices.
Health officials said 16 bodies had been received at Diwaniya’s main hospital and another 11 at a hospital in the neighbouring town of Hamza. Two more died in another centre.
An Oil Ministry official in Baghdad said the pipe was one of many across Iraq that are out of operation due to the shortages. Residue left in the pipe could have caused the blast, he said. — Reuters