At least 60 dead in tanker explosion in Tanzania

The tanker overturned in the town of Morogoro in central Tanzania. Most of the dead would have rushed to siphon the gas. The provisional toll is 60 dead and 70 injured.

A truck driver who witnessed the accident stated that the fire started when someone tried to remove the battery from the tanker.

In a statement, Morogoro police commander Wilbroad Mutafungwa confirmed that he had recovered 57 bodies after the explosion. The images shared on social networks show several scattered bodies, completely burned, and unrecognizable.

Morogoro is an important commercial center, a passage for trucks to and from the country’s economic capital, Dar es Salaam. It is an axis that serves other parts of the country as well as neighboring countries such as Malawi, Zambia, and countries of southern Africa.

A survivor testifies: “I heard a huge explosion. Then there was noise, people started running everywhere. I fell, you see the wounds on my lap. I saw people struggling to siphon fuel like water. Everyone was busy, no one understood that it was dangerous.”