“We convey our heartfelt condolences to the people and government of Sierra Leone for the loss of human lives and the injured caused by the explosion of a tanker truck in Freetown. We extend our condolences to the families and relatives of the victims,” the Foreign Affairs Minister wrote on Twitter.

The incident occurred on Friday night in Wellington, an eastern suburb of the capital after a collision between two trucks, one of them loaded with hundreds of liters of gasoline, the city’s mayor, Yvonne Aki-Sawyerr, confirmed on her Facebook page.

The explosion – which destroyed houses and other vehicles – claimed the lives of dozens of people who came with buckets and jerry cans to collect the fuel that had spilled after the crash.

According to the authorities the day before, the death toll could rise due to the critical situation of some of the injured, who were evacuated to different hospitals.

“We have many burned corpses,” said General Brima Bureh Sesay, director of the National Disaster Management Agency, in a video posted on social networks from the scene of the incident.

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