Nearly 100 dead after oil tanker explosion in Sierra Leone

6 November 2021, 21:21 | Updated: 6 November 2021, 21:23

At least 98 people have died, with dozens more severely injured, after an oil tanker exploded near Sierra Leone's capital.

The explosion happened late on Friday after the tanker collided with another vehicle as it was pulling into a petrol station in Wellington, just east of the capital of Freetown.

The National Disaster Management Agency said "both drivers came out of their vehicles and warned community residents to stay off the scene while trying to address a leakage emanating from the collision".

However, crowds reportedly rushed in to scoop up fuel. It was not known what caused the leaking fuel to ignite, but a massive explosion soon followed.

Video obtained by The Associated Press showed a giant fireball burning in the night sky.

Injured people whose clothes had burned off in the fire lay on stretchers as nurses attended to them today.

Hundreds of people milled outside the main gates of the mortuary, and near the hospital's main entrance, waiting for word of their loved ones.

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President Julius Maada Bio, who was in Glasgow today for the COP26 climate change conference, bemoaned the "horrendous loss of life".

"My profound sympathies with families who have lost loved ones and those who have been maimed as a result," he tweeted.