GHANA’S CAPITAL SHAKES AS GAS STATION EXPLODED

Unknown number killed after explosion of two gas stations in Accra. The blast was heard, seen and felt across the city.

According to a government official, on Saturday a tanker carrying natural gas exploded at 7:20 p.m in a northern suburb of Accra. the explosion killed and wounded an unknown number of people. A second explosion followed mintes later.

The explosion began at a state-owned GOIL liquefied natural gas station and  a witness said it spread to a Total petrol station across the street at the Atomic Junction.

A fireball was sent into the sky that night because of the two explosions and could be heard across the city which has over 7 million people. Frightened residents  at the area ran from the explosion and six fire engines and several ambulances responded to the blast.

Efia Tenge, a police spokesperson in his statement said “I was in Legon [in north-east Accra] and I heard two explosions. My whole building was shaking.”

The explosion was near the hostels for the University of Ghana.

A computer programmer, Kobby Boateng, said he had returned from the university campus with his girlfriend on Saturday when the blast happened. He said “All of a sudden, we heard a boom and the flash of an explosion, which made the building just shake and the lights went out”.

And added that “People were rushing out of their rooms. Some of them were naked and the heat that was coming from that blast – my God, it was unbearable.”

This explosion will revive memories of 4 June 2015, when more than 150 people were killed as they sought shelter from seasonal rains and flooding at a petrol station.

 

 

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