At least 15 dead, 400 injured in Equatorial Guinea blasts

State television reported that explosions at a military barrack in Equatorial Guinea killed at least 15 people and injured more than 400 others.

State television Tvge Read a statement by President Teodoro Obiang Nguma stating that the explosion was caused by “reckless handling of dynamite” at the military barrack located in the neighborhood of Mondong Nukuntoma, Bata. He said that the blast occurred at 4 pm local time. (8.30 pm IST)

“Almost all the houses and buildings in Bata were damaged by the impact of the explosion,” the president said in the statement.

Equatorial Guinea, a small West African country of 1.3 million people south of Cameroon, was a colony of Spain until it gained its independence in 1968.

Health officials said they believe there were missing people in the buildings damaged by the explosion.

There were some discrepancies with the death toll Tvge Reporting 20 dead, a tweet from the Ministry of Health stated that 17 people were killed and 15 are mentioned in the President’s statement.

State television showed smoke rising above the blast site, as the crowd was running, with many crying “We don’t know what happened, but it’s all destroyed.”

The Ministry of Health made a call for blood donors and volunteer health workers to go to the regional hospital de Bata, with one of the three hospitals treating the injured.

The ministry tweeted that its health workers are treating the injured at the site and in medical facilities, but it is feared that people are still missing under the debris.

Images on local media viewed by The Associated Press Screaming and crying to people running in the streets amid debris and smoke. The roofs of the houses were uprooted and the injured were being taken to the hospital.

The blasts were a blow to the oil-rich Central African nation. Foreign Minister Shimon Oyeno Iseno Angew met with foreign ambassadors and sought assistance.

“It is important for us to ask our brother countries to help them in this lamentable situation as we have a health emergency (due to COVID-19) and tragedy in Bata,” he said.

I am calling a doctor Tvge, Who went by his maiden name Florentino, said the situation was a “moment of crisis” and the hospitals were overcrowded. He said that a sports center set up for COVID-19 patients would be used to receive small cases.

Radio station, Radio macuto, Said on Twitter that people were being evacuated within four kilometers of the city as fumes could be harmful.

After the explosion, the Spanish embassy in Equatorial Guinea recommended on Twitter that “Spanish citizens stay in their homes.”