More than 30 killed in tanker explosion in Kenya

OVER 30 people died when a tanker carrying flammable materials crashed into other vehicles and burst into flames outside the town of Naivasha in Kenya late on Saturday, officials said.

“At 5:00 am the death toll was 33 but the search is still on,” Pius Masai of Kenya’s National Disaster Unit said Sunday. He added that rescuers were continuing to comb the area for bodies. Masai said the accident involved “over 11 vehicles burnt” when the tanker rammed into others on the road and caught fire.

Kenya’s Red Cross said that the driver lost control of the tanker which then crashed into other vehicles and “burst into flames”.

A passenger minibus and a police truck were among the vehicles gutted by the ferocious flames.

The dead include 11 officers of the General Service Unit, a paramilitary police force.

President Uhuru Kenyatta said “the tanker responsible for the deaths should not have been on that particular road at that hour” and called for a full investigation into a “tragic breach” of the rules restricting the movement of large trucks on certain roads and at certain times.

Police and witnesses said the truck with Ugandan registration plates was travelling fast when it hit a speed bump and then lost control.

At least 50 people injured in the accident have been admitted to a hospital in Naivasha. Some survivors were treated on the scene by civilians and the Red Cross while corpses were put in body bags and loaded into trucks.

The busy highway is notorious for deadly accidents. In 2009 more than 100 people were killed and 200 injured on the same road after a petrol tanker overturned and local people gathered to collect the leaking fuel when a fire ignited.