Maputo, 27 Oct (AIM) – At least four people died, and 10 others were injured, following an explosion of a tanker truck carrying fuel, in Vanduzi district, in the central Mozambican province of Manica.
The tragedy took place on Friday when a group of people was attempting to steal fuel from the tanker truck, after it skidded and overturned.
According to José Jone, spokesperson of the fire brigade (SENSAP) in Manica, speaking to reporters, “The truck was carrying gasoline and we concluded that the high temperature and the highly flammable fuel were the factors that caused the explosion”.
Among the fatalities, according to local reports, were a man and two women, one of whom was carrying a baby.
This is not the first time that attempts to steal fuel have led to tragedy. The worst case took place in November 2016, when a Mercedes-Benz truck, towing a trailer carrying two tanks holding a total of 80,000 litres of petrol, left the main road to Malawi, and drove into the bush to the locality of Caphiridzanje in the central province of Tete.
The truck belonged to the Malawian haulage company Walkers, and it was taking the fuel from the central Mozambican port of Beira to Malawi. But the driver was involved in a scheme to steal the fuel, and drove the truck to a rendezvous with a Toyota Hino pick-up that was laden with empty plastic containers.
The thieves used an electric pump to drain the fuel from one of the tanks into the plastic containers. But at about 19.30 the pump short-circuited and a fire broke out. Both the pick-up truck and one of the tanks towed by the Mercedes Benz caught fire.
The following day one of the two tanks was still on fire, but the second was intact. A crowd gathered, in the absence of any police, and decided to raid the second tank, this led to further explosion, and massive mortality among the crowd.
The greed of the fuel thieves led to the deaths of 80 people in Caphiridzanje.
(AIM)
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