Fuel Tanker Explosion Kills 13, Injures 31 In Southwestern Kenya - Reports

MOSCOW (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 18th July, 2021) Thirteen people lost their lives and 31 were injured in a fuel tanker explosion in Siaya County in southwestern Kenya, Nation Africa reported on Sunday.

The incident took place in the city of Malanga on Saturday night, after a fuel tanker collided with a truck carrying milk and overturned.

The blast was caused by actions of local residents, who started to siphon fuel from an opened compartment of the tanker.

"Out of impatience and ignorance, another resident, realising the other compartment was closed and delaying them, opened it to enable them siphon very fast before the police could arrive. In the process, it caused a spark and it blew up," Gem Constituency Officer Commanding Police Division Mosero Chacha said as quoted by the Kenyan newspaper.

The injured people were taken to hospitals for treatment of burns.