Minister says death toll from Kenya petrol blaze rises to 111

"Certainly this is a national tragedy. We have just been informed that more succumbed to injuries in hospitals. The total number is now 111," Interior Minister George Saitoti said as he inspected the scene of the deadly blaze near the Rift Valley town of Molo, 150 kilometers (95 miles) northwest of Nairobi.

 

Bodies burnt beyond recognition were still strewn across the road as emergency services struggled to cope with the number of casualties.

 

The injured were dispatched to several hospitals in the country while extra body bags also had to be sent from the capital, rescuers said.

 

"Thirty-four of the survivors who suffered serious burns have been airlifted to Nairobi for specialized treatment," Saitoti told reporters.

 

According to witnesses and rescue services, the tanker overturned on the roadside after being involved in an accident late Saturday.

 

It was soon swarmed by dozens of locals who rushed with jerricans and other makeshift containers to siphon a few liters of fuel spewing from the wreckage into a ditch.Â

 

"I saw a crowd at the scene of the accident, then I rushed there when I heard there was fuel. I had taken the first jerrican back to my home and when I came back for the second, I heard an explosion and it was like we all caught fire. I don’t even know how I got here," 25-year-old Michael Kerich told AFP, lying on a blanket on the floor of Rift Valley provincial hospital in Nakuru.

 

Some witness accounts said the spill may have been set ablaze when one member of the crowd lit a cigarette.

 

Kenya police spokesman Eric Kiraithe said from the scene that the exact circumstances of the accident were still being investigated.

 

Kenya Red Cross spokesman Titus Mungou said: "There were many people at the scene who had gone to scoop fuel, that is when the tanker exploded. The fire seems to have been ignited by something like a matchbox."

 

Mungou said many of the victims were women and children.

 

Villagers flocked to the scene of the explosion and the regions hospitals, looking at body bags and searching casualty wards to locate their loves ones.

 

"I have lost three sons, my fourth and last one was admitted in this hospital with serious injuries. One of those who died was due to join secondary school next week," said John Sang outside the hospital.

 

Such accidents are relatively frequent in Nigeria, Africa’s most populous state, but the carnage near Molo was the worst such disaster to hit Kenya, which has recently been affected by frequent fuel shortages.

 

"This is a national disaster, it is so unfortunate that we have lost many people in two tragedies in less than a week," Saitoti said.

 

On Wednesday, a central Nairobi supermarket was completely destroyed by flames, killing at least 25 people.

 

Four days later, rescuers were still sifting through the rubble to look for the bodies of missing people believed to have been trapped in the inferno.