More than 60 killed in fuel truck explosion in Haiti
More than 60 people have died after a fuel truck overturned and exploded in Haiti's second-largest city Cap-Haitien, the country's health ministry has announced.
The death toll is expected to rise after the truck carrying gasoline overturned at about midnight in the area of Sanmarie on the eastern end of the city, according to local media.
The local hospital was stretched trying to treat the injured, said the mayor, Pierre Yvrose, on Tuesday. The total number of injured was still not known.
"We need human resources, and also material resources, namely, serum, gauze, and anything that can be used in case of serious burns," Yvrose said.
This year the Caribbean nation has suffered from a wave of violence by gangs, which prevented fuel trucks from loading at its main fuel ports for nearly a month, forcing many businesses to shut down. Fuel deliveries resumed last month.
As rescue workers cleaned up in the aftermath of the explosion, bodies covered in white sheets lay on the ground before they were loaded onto trucks to be taken away.
Reuters journalists said that the blast also damaged the fronts of houses and shops in the street and charred motorbikes and cars.
"I learned, with desolation and emotion, the sad news of the explosion, last night, in Cap-Haitien, of a tanker truck which transported gasoline," the prime minister, Ariel Henry, wrote on Twitter.
The government declared three days of mourning for the dead.
The UN office in Haiti said it stood ready to help the national authorities in its response and offered its condolences to the victims' families.
Gangs have grown so powerful since the July assassination of President Jovenel Moïse, which created a political vacuum and allowed criminal groups to expand their territory.
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