By IANS/RIA Novosti,
Moscow : The toll in Sunday’s munitions depot blasts in Brazzaville, the capital of the Republic of Congo, has topped 240, a media report said Wednesday.
A short circuit and subsequent fire led to a series of powerful blasts at a military depot in Brazzaville Sunday, causing hundreds of buildings to collapse, including two churches full of worshippers.
The country’s state radio puts the official toll at 246 people. More than 2,000 people were wounded and 5,000 lost their homes as a result of the explosions.
The unofficial death count has risen to “more than 250 people” as those critically injured succumbed to their injuries, the African Press Agency said.
A hospital morgue official told the agency that the toll is likely to climb further as “a number of casualties are still buried beneath the rubble of houses blown up in the blast”.