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A large group of people has gathered at the scene of the accident in Freetown and is looking at broken and charred vehicle parts
Photo: SAIDU BAH / AFP
Dozens of people were killed in a collision between a tanker truck and a truck in Sierra Leone, West Africa. The accident occurred on Friday evening in a busy street in the capital, Freetown. According to eyewitness reports, many people rushed to the tanker after the collision with containers to siphon off gasoline. Shortly afterwards the truck exploded. Some surrounding shops and cars caught fire, it said.
Employees of a hospital near the scene of the accident confirmed to the dpa news agency on Saturday that rescue workers had brought in 80 bodies during the night.
The local TV station AYV spoke of 400 victims on Saturday morning.
The government initially did not confirm the exact number of victims.
"We have so many victims, burned bodies," said the head of the National Disaster Management Agency, Brima Bureh Sesay.
"It's a terrible, terrible accident."
President Julius Maada Bio, who attended the UN Climate Change Conference in Glasgow (COP26) on Friday, is expected in Freetown shortly, a government spokesman said.
Because of the "tragic accident" Bio canceled a planned trip to a meeting of the West African economic community Ecowas in Ghana.
hen / dpa / Reuters