Huge gas explosion at Ghana’s capital ‘Accra’
A huge explosion has rocked a gas station in Ghana’s capital of Accra on Saturday evening, killing an unknown number of people, according to an official.
At least six fire trucks and more than 200 police personnel were deployed to help to cordon off the area of the blasts. Ambulances also arrived and those with various injuries were sent to the hospital.
The explosion at around 7:30 p.m. local time (1930 GMT) began at a state-owned GOIL liquefied natural gas station and spread to a Total petrol station across the street at the city’s Atomic Junction, a witness said.
George Agbey from Accra, who was close to the scene of the explosion said, “There was some panic and we all just moved away from the scene. It was like refugees moving away from a war-torn zone.
Al Jazeera’s Ama Boateng, reporting from Accra, said that many people are feared dead as the blasts happened at “an extremely busy part” of the capital.
Several eyewitnesses told Reuters they had counted four or five bodies, although some bodies could have already been removed from the scene.
In 2015, an explosion in the capital city killed about 150 people who were seeking shelter from seasonal rains and flooding at a gas station.
