13 people die while siphoning fuel from an overturned tanker in Western Kenya

Thirteen people died and several others were injured while siphoning fuel after a petrol tanker overturned and exploded in Western Kenya. According to area residents, the tanker that was heading to Busia from Kisumu city hit an oncoming lorry before it lost control and veered off the road then rolled.

Charles Chacha, a local police chief in Siaya County where the accident occurred, said 24 people were in hospital with serious burns. Earlier, he said children were among those injured.

Images broadcast by Kenyan media showed the blazing tanker lighting up the night sky and on Sunday morning following, crowds gaping at the twisted, smoldering wreckage.

It took three hours to contain the inferno according to the police with the help of the fire brigade from Busia County.

In 2009, more than 100 people were killed when a petrol tanker overturned northwest of Nairobi and an explosion consumed those gathering to collect leaking fuel.

More recently, at least 100 people were killed when a tanker exploded in Tanzania in 2019 while in 2015 more than 200 perished in a similar accident in South Sudan.