At least 28 dead after fuel tank blast in Lebanon

At least 28 people were killed and nearly 80 others injured when a fuel tank exploded in northern Lebanon yesterday, authorities and medics said, scalding a crowd that was clamoring for gasoline in the crisis-hit country.

The night-time tragedy overwhelmed medical facilities and heaped new misery on a nation already beset by an economic crisis and severe fuel shortages that have crippled hospitals and caused long power cuts.

It revived bitter memories of an enormous explosion at Beirut port in August last year that killed more than 200 people and destroyed swathes of the capital.

An adviser to the health ministry said the death toll from the blast in Al-Tleil village, in the remote northern region of Akkar, had climbed to 28, while the Lebanese Red Cross earlier put the number of wounded at 79.

The military said a fuel tank that "had been confiscated by the army to distribute to citizens" exploded just before 2am, leaving soldiers also among the wounded.

The army began raiding gas stations on Saturday to curb hoarding by suppliers after the central bank chief announced last week he would scrap fuel subsidies.

The official National News Agency said the blast followed scuffles between "residents that gathered around the container to fill up gasoline" overnight.

Hospitals in Akkar, one of Lebanon's poorest regions near the border with Syria, and in the northern port city of Tripoli said they had to turn away many of the injured because they were ill-equipped to treat severe burns.

"The corpses are so charred that we can't identify them," said Yassine Metlej, an employee at a Akkar hospital where seven bodies and dozens of injured were brought.

"Some have lost their faces, others their arms," Metlej said.

The head of Lebanon's High Relief Council, Mohammad Kheir, said authorities were "in contact with Turkey and Egypt to transfer the most serious cases abroad," according to NNA.

"This is a real catastrophe, like the Beirut explosion," he said.

Unable to seek treatment in Akkar, Ismail al-Sheikh, 23, who sustained burns to his arms and legs, was driven by his sister Marwa to the Geitawi hospital in Beirut.

"At night, we were informed that the army was distributing gasoline ... so people flocked to fill it in plastic containers ... straight from the tank," Marwa said.

"Most of the people who were there said that someone had thrown a lighter on the floor" causing a fire that sparked the explosion, she added.

Other eyewitnesses claimed that shots were fired before the blast. Grief and anger filled the corridors outside the emergency rooms.

"What am I going to tell my sister?!" said a man in military uniform whose brother-in-law has been reported missing and brother hospitalized.

Lebanon, hit by a financial crisis branded by the World Bank as one of the planet's worst since the 1850s, has been grappling with soaring poverty, a plummeting currency and dire fuel shortages.

Central bank governor Salameh said last Wednesday the bank cannot afford fuel subsidies due to dwindling foreign reserves.