25 burnt to death in Ghana

RTTNews

- In all, 25 persons have died and scores of others critically wounded in Ghana, when an oil tanker, which overturned, exploded.

Local residents were collecting gas (petrol) from the tanker in the town of Techiman, northwest of the capital Accra, when it exploded Wednesday morning.

Reports quoting witnesses and officials said the bodies were burnt beyond recognition as they were caught in the fire.

Several others who sustained critical burns were taken to hospital. The death toll may rise, as some of them are in a critical condition.

Similar incidents occurred in some other West African countries, when attempts to salvage leaking fuel (gas) from crash sites were being made.

AFP

TECHIMAN, Ghana (AFP) – At least 25 people were killed on Wednesday when a fuel tanker exploded in central Ghana, according to an AFP correspondent who counted the bodies at the scene.

About 40 others were injured, many of them seriously, near Techiman town in the central farming region of Brong-Ahafo, some 400 kilometres (250 miles) northeast of the capital Accra.

Officials at a local hospital confirmed 25 people had died.

The victims who were burnt beyond recognition, had been scooping oil from the tanker that had just been involved in an accident, when the explosion occured.

It could not be immediately established what sparked the explosion. Incidents of people perishing in their dozens or even hundreds while looting fuel vehicles or pipelines are common in west Africa.

In Nigeria, Africa's second largest oil producer where nearly half of the 140 million people live in poverty, people rarely pass up on opportunities to gather free fuel from whatever source.

The fuel can always be sold in jerrycans to motorists at lower than pump price.

Ghana is in 2010 set to become the newest member of the elite club of Africa's oil producers following discoveries of reserves off its shores.

Reuters

ACCRA, Nov 26 (Reuters) - More than 20 people were killed and many others seriously injured when a tanker truck carrying fuel caught fire after it crashed in western Ghana on Wednesday, police and an eyewitness said. The tanker crashed near the town of Tanoso, some 240 km (150 miles) from the capital Accra and close to Ghana's border with Ivory Coast. The vehicle exploded in flames as local people were collecting spilled petrol.

"At least 23 residents of Tanoso were burned beyond recognition when the tanker from which they were scooping fuel caught fire," eyewitness Kofi Lawson told Reuters.

"I counted at least 23 bodies that were burned to ashes," he said, speaking by phone from the crash site.

Police said they counted at least 21 bodies, and that more than 20 had been taken to hospital, some in a critical condition.

"On hearing the crash, the residents rushed to the scene and started siphoning the fuel off the tanker while others used bowls, buckets, enamelware -- anything they could lay hands on -- to scoop the fuel that was pouring out and unfortunately, there was a fire and an explosion and many of them got burnt," said Superintendent Solomon Nim.

Many West Africans have been killed attempting to salvage leaking fuel from crash sites. In August, at least 10 people died in Cameroon as they collected petrol from an overturned tanker which exploded. In September, a similar accident in Central African Republic killed 15.