DHAKA: At least 170 people have been killed after an oil tanker exploded in South Sudan.

Officials say, reports the BBC.

The tanker had veered off the road in Maridi, Western Equatoria state, and local residents were siphoning off the fuel when the vehicle exploded, they said.

At least 50 people are reported to have been injured.

Local hospitals have been overwhelmed, and state officials have appealed to the Red Cross and the UN for help.

The tanker was traveling from the capital Juba and was close to Maridi, some 250km away, when it came off the road and overturned.

Maradi county commissioner Wilson Thomas Yanga told the BBC that while the driver went to the nearest town to get help, local residents had descended on the tanker to collect up some of the petrol it contained.

He said it was not yet clear what caused the explosion.

Yanga confirmed the death toll had risen to 176, and said officials feared the true number of wounded was not yet known as many may have fled the scene.

Doctors and medical staff were flying in from across the country to help with the emergency, he added.

Local doctor Chandi Savior told Radio Tamazuj that they were low on supplies of basics such as oxygen and pain killers.

He said many people had arrived with burns and they were ‘not really able to calm down this pain’.

South Sudan became an independent country in 2011, after a peace deal with Sudan that ended Africa’s longest-running civil war.

BDST: 2153 HRS, SEPT 17, 2015
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