Up to 100 Die in African Rail Collision
A train hauling oil exploded into flames Saturday after derailing and colliding with an oncoming train on the outskirts of this capital. Up to 100 people were killed in the blast.
Many of the victims were cabdrivers and others who had rushed in with pails to scoop up oil gushing from the ruptured tanker cars and were engulfed in flames when they exploded, said Yaounde’s coroner, Defoe Mambo.
The trains collided in midafternoon near Yaounde’s central oil depot in Nsam, on the city’s fringe, authorities said. The ensuing blast sent billows of black smoke into the air that were visible throughout much of the capital. By late Saturday, the fire still had not been extinguished.
One witness said that a lighted cigarette sparked the blast. The report could not be confirmed.
Witnesses and doctors at several Yaounde hospitals said that at least 100 people were killed in the explosion, although a television report put the number in the dozens.
“We have been able to identify between 50 and 80 dead,” Mambo said. “But we do not know where all the corpses have been taken.”
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