By Ebi Kesiena
A massive explosion on Saturday at a petrol station in Freetown, the capital of Sierra Leone, has killed at least 80 people.
Most of the victims were burnt in their cars and on the streets nearby.
According to a rescue worker and nurse, over 80 bodies had been recovered from the site.
Also, a nurse at a hospital where the victims were taken confirmed the number of dead to the press, adding he had also tended to many women, men and children with “serious injuries”.
“We recovered 80 bodies from the site of the accident last night with our ambulances,” the rescue worker from the Red Cross told AFP, adding that rescue operations were ongoing on Saturday morning.
An eye witnesses explained that the accident happened when a vehicle caught fire in a petrol station after a road accident.
The flames then spread in the area, burning people in cars and on roads nearby.
However, Sierra Leone’s Vice President Mohamed Juldeh Jalloh had arrived on site on Saturday to ascertain the level of destruction as he consoled with families that had lost their loved ones to the explosion.
