Over forty persons were killed in central Liberia after a tanker truck carrying fuel crashed and exploded, according to the country’s chief medical officer on Wednesday.
The tanker carrying fuel crashed and tipped into a ditch along a road in Totota, about 130 kilometers (80 miles) from Monrovia, the capital.
The chief medical officer, Francis Kateh told local media that determining the number of victims was difficult because some had been reduced to ashes, but he suspected that more than 40 persons were killed in the tragedy.
Police earlier put the death toll at 15 and said at least 30 people were injured as locals gathered at the scene.
Another police officer, said that after the crash, some locals had begun to take the leaking gas when the tanker exploded, killing some and wounding others.
He added that the police were still gathering the total number of injured and killed.
An eyewitness reported that people climbed all on top of the truck taking the gas, while some of them had irons hitting the tanker for it to burst for them to get gas.
