A DEADLY fuel tank explosion in Lebanon has heaped new misery on the country, overwhelming frail medical facilities and spurring a search for the missing,
At least 20 people were killed and nearly 80 others injured when a fuel tank exploded in Lebanon’s northern region of Akkar, the Lebanese Red Cross and state media said Sunday.
Lebanon is already suffering from an economic crisis and severe fuel shortages that have crippled hospitals and caused long power cuts.
Soon after the explosion, the Red Cross said on Twitter that 20 people had been killed.
It added that 79 other people were injured.
It said the explosion took place following scuffles between “residents that gathered around the container to fill up gasoline” overnight.The official National News Agency said that a container of fuel that the army had confiscated – part of an effort by the military to stop suppliers from hoarding – had exploded.
The agency added that the army had left the area before the fight and the explosion.
Yassine Metlej, an employee at an Akkar hospital, said that the facility had received at least seven corpses and dozens of burns victims.
“The corpses are so charred that we can’t identify them,” he told AFP.
“Some have lost their faces, others their arms.”
He said the hospital had to turn away most of the wounded because it is not equipped to treat severe burns.
