Ghana gas station explosions kill number of people

A tanker explosion at a gas-filling station in Ghana late Saturday, followed by a secondary blast, has left a number of casualties in the Legon suburb in northwest Accra, authorities said.

Ghana’s deputy information minister Kojo Oppong-Nkrumah said the fire has been controlled and firefighters are now controlling the second explosion.

“It is early days yet to give any figures” on the number injured or dead, he said, adding there were casualties.

Ambulances had been deployed, and those people who sustained various degrees of injury have been sent to hospitals, he said.

More than 200 police personnel were also deployed to help to cordon off the area of the explosion, making it difficult to access. The filling station is near a transport terminal and close to some hostels for the University of Ghana in Accra.

George Agbey, who was close to the scene of the explosion said, “There was some panic and we all just moved away from the scene. It was like refugees moving away from a war-torn zone.”

Videos of the explosion posted on social media showed a blazing mushroom cloud.

Legon is a suburb of the capital, and is also home to the main campus of the University of Ghana.

In May, an explosion at a factory in the Western Regional capital of Takoradi occurred as a tanker was discharging liquefied petroleum gas at the Ghana Household Utilities Manufacturing Company factory. That explosion killed at least six fire service personnel at the scene, and injured at least other 80 people, according to Ghana’s state news agency.