By ANTARA,
Nairobi : More than 50 people died in Kenya when an oil spill from a crashed truck caught fire as hundreds of people crowded round it, authorities said on Saturday.
“The people went to scoop up the oil, then something lit the fire, maybe someone dropped a cigarette,” Kenya Red Cross spokesman Titus Mung`ou told Reuters of the disaster in Molo town. “More than 50 people have died.”
Speaking to Reuters from the scene, Rift Valley police provincial commissioner Hassan Noor Hassan told Reuters he had counted more than 50 charred bodies. Another 82 people were critically injured, he said.
“After the lorry overturned and it spilled a lot of petrol, hundreds of residents from the area, and motorcycle riders, came to try and get free fuel. Then it seems somebody lit a cigarette, causing the fire. Or someone who was stopped from getting close by the police started the fire on purpose.”
The disaster in Molo followed the deaths of at least 25 people in Nairobi when a supermarket caught fire earlier this week.
Local media have been berating the government for poor safety standards and inadequate disaster preparedness.(*)