A fuel tank exploded near Muammar Qadhafi's hometown Sirte killing more than 100 people, less than a week after he was captured and killed in the Libyan city, a military chief said Tuesday. "There was an enormous explosion and a huge fire. More than 100 people were killed and 50 others wounded" in Monday's blast, a National Transitional Council (NTC) commander, Leith Mohammed, told AFP.
He said the scene was "a heart wrenching spectacle with dozens of charred bodies." The accidental explosion came as a crowd of people waited near the fuel tank to fill up their cars.
An AFP correspondent said the tragedy took place near Sirte airport, some 30 kilometres (18 miles) south of the Mediterranean city, hometown and last bastion of Libya's slain veteran leader Qadhafi. A radio station and two large fuel reservoirs stand nearby, said the correspondent, who saw at least 29 vehicles blackened by huge flames that shot into the sky, burnt shoes, melted plastic jerrycans and shreds of clothing.
"The explosion happened yesterday (Monday) at around noon," said Ali Faraj who helped evacuate the wounded. "It was very strong. I live 25 kilometres away and I heard it." Faraj angrily complained that no ambulances were available to ferry the wounded to hospital. Omran Ajelli, a doctor at Ibn Sina hospital in Sirte, said he treated 26 people, five of them "in critical state" with severe burns, and three bodies were brought in, with the other casualties apparently taken elsewhere.
The five critical wounded "should be transferred to Tripoli for treatment but we have no cars, we have nothing here" to transport them, he said. "I am desperate." Three doctors only still work at Ibn Sina but there are no nurses to look after hundreds of patients, wounded in fighting, and the hospital is in dire need of medicine, Ajelli said.
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