Tragedy – Explosion occurs as people try to collect fuel leaking from crashed tanker
Already partly under the control of armed gangs, fate is relentless in Haiti. On Saturday, 24 people were killed and around forty others injured, some of them very seriously burned, in the explosion of a tanker truck, announced the Civil Protection of this Caribbean country.
According to witnesses, the explosion occurred as the victims were trying to collect fuel leaking from the crashed tanker in the Miragoâne district in the southwest of the country.
Help from Doctors Without Borders
Acting Prime Minister Garry Conille called an emergency meeting following the tragedy, said Emmanuel Pierre, the national head of Civil Protection. According to the Haitian official, other charred bodies were discovered in the evening near the site of the explosion, raising the death toll from 16 to 24.
About forty people were injured, half of them very seriously. Nineteen were severely burned, who were supposed to be transferred to specialized hospitals in the capital Port-au-Prince on a flight co-organized by the Ministry of Public Health and the NGO Doctors Without Borders (MSF). But only six were able to be evacuated Saturday evening, Emmanuel Pierre said.
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