Oil truck fireball kills at least 42 in central Kenya: aid worker
By Anthony Githonga
NAIVASHA, Kenya (Reuters) - A fireball from an oil lorry engulfed vehicles on one of Kenya's main highways, killing at least 42 people late on Saturday, a rescue worker at the scene said.
The tanker lorry rammed into vehicles north of the central town of Naivasha then exploded, an official with the National Disaster Management Authority said.
"More bodies are still trapped inside the burned vehicles," Red Cross volunteer Moha Maris told Reuters.
The government gave a lower death toll. "The information that we have is that 13 vehicles were involved and so far we have retrieved 33 bodies," Irungu Nyakera, Principal Secretary at the Ministry of Transport and Infrastructure, told a news conference.
An official in Naivasha said 50 people were being treated in several hospitals for burns, eight of them in a serious condition.
In 2009, more than 100 people burned to death near the central town of Molo after a lorry carrying petrol caught fire.
(Additional reporting by Noor Ali and Humphrey Malalo; Writing by Katharine Houreld; Editing by Aaron Maasho and Andrew Heavens)
Serious News for Serious Traders! Try StreetInsider.com Premium Free!
You May Also Be Interested In
- O'Reilly Automotive's profit misses on higher costs
- UK's Labour outlines plan to renationalise railways within 5 years
- LATAM scraps plan to acquire Boeing B737s after talks end with bankrupt Gol
Create E-mail Alert Related Categories
ReutersSign up for StreetInsider Free!
Receive full access to all new and archived articles, unlimited portfolio tracking, e-mail alerts, custom newswires and RSS feeds - and more!