24 PEOPLE DEAD AFTER FUEL TRUCK BLAST IN HAITI

A fuel truck explosion caused the death of 24 people and 40 suffered serious injuries including third-degree burns.

The incident took place on Saturday on a road in the country’s southern peninsula near the coastal city of Miragoane.

Some of the most seriously injured victims were evacuated by helicopter to receive special care. The government sent ambulances to take those with severe burns to hospitals located further away as local hospitals were already overcrowded.

Haiti Prime Minister Gary Conille visited the site and said “It’s a horrible scene we’ve just lived through. Many dozens of victims, wounded, severely burned.”

Haiti’s emergency services said most of the injured were men, as well as three women and a child. Another 15 people sustained second-degree burns.

A witness on the scene said the truck’s gas tank was punctured by another vehicle, and people had rushed to the site to collect fuel when the explosion happened.

“There were a lot of people. Those who were close to the truck got pulverised.”

Reuters reports that a similar incident in 2021 in the city of Cap-Haitien killed at least 60 people after people were also thought to have been attempting to take fuel from a tanker truck.

Image credit: Sky News