PORT-AU-PRINCE: At least 60 people were killed when a gas tanker truck exploded in the Haitian city of Cap-Haitien on Tuesday morning, a local official said, with overwhelmed medics saying the toll was feared to rise.
The blast is the latest disaster to hit the poverty-wracked Caribbean nation, where violent gangs have triggered crippling fuel shortages by choking off supply, and the president’s assassination five months ago has yet to be elucidated.
“We have now counted 60 deaths,” Deputy Mayor Patrick Almonor said, adding that authorities were still searching for additional victims amid the charred debris in Cap-Haitien, Haiti’s second-largest city located on the northern coast.
Almonor earlier described a horrific scene at the blast site, saying he had seen more than 50 people “burned alive” and that it was “impossible to identify them.”
According to Almonor, the truck is believed to have flipped over after the driver lost control while swerving to avoid a motorcycle taxi.
Fuel spilled onto the road and pedestrians apparently rushed to collect the tanker’s gas, a precious commodity as Haiti grapples with a severe fuel shortage caused by the tightening grip of criminal gangs on the capital Port-au-Prince.
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