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Dozens of people were injured on Tuesday morning when a fuel tanker exploded in the northern city of Cap-Haitien.
Number of deaths due to A explosion fuel tanker truck The northern Haitian city of Cap-Haitien has risen to 75, according to local reports, as the Caribbean nation struggles to cope with the latest in a series of political crises and natural disasters.
The truck pulled out of Haiti’s second-largest city Tuesday morning, preventing it from riding a motorcycle.
Witnesses said residents went to the cistern after the accident to collect some spilled gasoline before the vehicle exploded in a fireball, and damaged neighborhood cars, homes and shops.
Haitian Northern Department official Pierrot Degaul Augustin was quoted as saying by a local radio station that the death toll had risen to 75 on Wednesday.
Frandy Jean, head of the Haitian fire brigade in the north of the country, said the result of the explosion on Tuesday was due to the deterioration of fuel stored in nearby homes and fuel approaching after the truck overturned.
“The driver warned people not to approach the truck,” Jean told Reuters. “They didn’t listen. They carried their phones, which they used [as flashlights], and some tried to drill the tank with hammers. ‘
Haiti is suffering fuel shortages, earlier this year the gangs were overwhelmed by a month-long blockade at the fuel terminals in the capital, Port-au-Prince and the surrounding area.
It was a blockade lighten hospitals were on the verge of closing in November, but shortages and rising petrol prices have continued.
Pope Francis has expressed solidarity with the Haitian people after the blast, saying they were “so severely tried” on Wednesday.
There has been a huge explosion in the last few hours #Haiti where many people, including children, lost their lives. I am close to the families of the victims, as well as to the injured. Leave it to us #PrayTogether because of these brothers and sisters who are so hard tested.
– Pope Francis (@Pope) December 15, 2021
“Poor Haiti, one thing after another,” Francis said. “It simply came to our notice then. Let us pray, let us pray for Haiti. Good people, good people, religious people. But they are suffering a lot. ”
A day earlier, the Prime Minister Ariel Henry He visited Justinian University Hospital, the largest hospital in Cap-Haitien, where there were not enough beds to care for the wounded.
“We are saddened to see so many people injured and so many people killed,” Henry said at a news conference.
He announced it later Twitter that the government is preparing state funerals for the victims and is releasing funds to help the tragedy.
More than 50 people were injured in the blast, according to authorities.
Cap-Haitien deputy mayor Patrick Almonor said he had seen dozens of people “burned alive” and added that it was “impossible to identify”.
Haiti, one of the poorest countries in the world, is suffering regularly natural disasters, group violence and the assassination of the president exacerbated the long-standing political crisis Jovenel Moise in July.
The country has also struggled to rebuild a devastating earthquake it killed more than 2,200 people in August.
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