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Sierra Leone: More than 80 people die in fuel tanker collision

The blast, which is not believed to be terror-related, happened after a 40ft-long oil tanker collided with another vehicle at a busy junction in the city.

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Oil tanker collision
Oil tanker collision

Sierra Leone: More than 80 people have died in an oil tanker collision with another vehicle at the capital of Sierra Leone capital 'Freetown' in West Africa on Saturday. 

Footage broadcast by local media outlets showed badly charred bodies in the streets surrounding the tanker.
Mayor Yvonne Aki- Sawyerr said the scale of the damage was not yet clear.
The mayor wrote on Facebook that there are "rumors that more than 100 people have lost their lives", although there is as yet no official death toll.
The explosion is believed to have happened at a junction outside the busy Choithram Supermarket in the Wellington region of the city at around 22.00 local time (23.00 BST) local time. 
Brima Bureh Sesay, the head of the Sierre Leone's National Disaster Management Agency, told local media that the incident had been "a terrible, terrible accident".
The port city, which is home to just over a million people, has faced several serious disasters in recent years.

Sierra Leone is a country on the southwest coast of West Africa. It is bordered by Liberia to the southeast and Guinea to the northeast.

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