Discuss & Debate | Share | Learn

[abuali]

There has been a very bad fuel pipeline explosion and blaze in Nairobi. The death toll is expected to be 100+.

We pray for the safety of the people in the area and the recovery of the injured and the forgiveness of the dead.

Inna lilahi wa inna ilaihi rajioon

[abuali]

from thisdaylive

BBC

More than 100 people have died after a petrol pipeline explosion and fire in Kenya's capital, Nairobi, police say.

The blast took place in the city's Lunga Lunga industrial area, and police and troops cordoned off the district as firefighters battled fierce flames in a nearby shanty town, reports the BBC.

The pipeline runs through a densely populated slum area between Nairobi's city centre and the airport.

More than 80 casualties have been taken to hospitals, officials said.

The BBC's Hassan Lali describes a horrific scene littered with charred bodies - some so badly burned that only their skeletons remained.

Reports suggest Monday's blast may have been sparked by a cigarette butt being thrown into an open sewer that was filling with fuel.

The fuel had leaked from a tank in a depot belonging to the Kenya Pipeline Company, police spokesman Charles Owino told Reuters news agency.

Residents said the earlier spill had prompted many people to rush and collect leaking fuel.

"Then there was a loud bang, a big explosion, and smoke and fire burst up high," resident Joseph Mwego told Agence France-Presse.

Parts of bodies littered the remains of burning shacks for some 300m (1,000ft) around the site of the blast, locals said.

Bodies were also seen floating in a nearby river, into which burn victims had reportedly leapt after catching fire.

Tin-roofed huts were built directly adjacent to the pipeline in the area, residents say.

There have been other deaths involving people collecting leaking fuel: More than 100 people died in Molo, western Kenya, in 2009 after a fire on an overturned tanker.