Scores of people were feared dead near Sierra Leone's capital after an oil tanker exploded at a gas station while large crowds had gathered to collect leaking fuel, officials and witnesses said.
The explosion occurred after a 40-foot-long oil truck collided with another vehicle at a major downtown intersection.Local media agencies published footage of badly burnt victims in the streets surrounding the tanker.
According to its manager, the state-run mortuary has received 91 bodies so far.
According to BBC, the major explosion has killed at least 84 people and injured dozens more.
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In recent years, the port city, which has a population of slightly over a million people, has been hit by multiple major calamities.
More than 80 people were injured in March after a big fire in one of the city's slums displaced over 5,000 residents.
The explosion took place early Saturday after a bus struck the tanker in Wellington, a suburb just to the east of Freetown.
President Julius Maada Bio, who was in Scotland attending the United Nations climate talks Saturday, deplored 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.
(With inputs from AP)
