Scores dead after gas tanker explodes in Haiti’s second largest city
Scores of people were killed late Monday after a tanker transporting gasoline exploded in Cap Haitien, Haiti’s second largest city, according to Haiti officials.
The death toll currently stands at 54, according to the local civil protection agency. Dozens more are injured and in hospital.
Medical officials have issued a public appeal for blood donations, a civil protection agency spokesperson told CNN.
Haiti’s Prime Minister Ariel Henry reacted to the tragedy on Tuesday morning, tweeting: “I learned, with desolation and emotion, the sad news of the explosion, last night, in Cap-Haitien, of a tanker truck transporting gasoline, and which caused, according to a partial report, about forty dead, dozens injured, as well as extensive material damage.”
Local officials say rescue efforts are ongoing and that the death toll is expected to rise.
Mr. Henry later declared three days of national mourning in the wake of the explosion, “in memory of the victims of this tragedy which grieves the entire Haitian nation.”
More soon…
Source: Ghana News
