Afghan tanker blast kills 34

2004-05-03 11:47

Kabul - At least 34 people died and scores more sustained severe burns on Sunday when a gas tanker exploded on a crucial road linking southern and northwestern Afghanistan.

The gas-laden truck blew up at about 14:30 in the bazaar of Azizabad, in Shindand district in the far south of western Herat province, said provincial police chief Zia-Ulldin Mahmodi.

Although the exact cause of the accident is unknown, officials said the blast was caused by careless welding near the tanker.

"The truck explodes and the result is 31 people killed, 35 injured," Mahmodi said, speaking from Herat Public Health Hospital where many of the injured were taken after the blast in a shopping district.

"Probably half of the injured people will also die as their injuries are very bad, they have 100 percent burns."

Thirty-one people had died at the scene while another three had succumbed to their injuries after arriving at Herat hospital.

Twenty-six people were being treated for burns while other casualties were being dealt with at a clinic in Shindand, said a spokesperson for French non-governmental organisation Medecins du Monde France, Valerie Gentner.

Gentner said the NGO had brought some medicine to the hospital but, like most of Afghanistan's medical facilities, it was not equipped to deal with the emergency.

"I can see around eight or nine casualties in the same room," she said. "They are groaning. We have brought some drugs but they are still lacking bedsheets and bandages."

Azizabad lies on the Kandahar-Herat highway linking the main southern city with the prosperous north-west capital of Herat which borders Iran and Turkmenistan.

- AFP