At least seventeen people died and more than seventy were injured to varying degrees, fifty of them seriously, in the explosion of several liquefied gas tanks. in an area of central Yemenmedical sources reported this Sunday.
The explosion occurred on Saturday afternoon in the remote Al Zahir district, in the province of Al Bayda, about 270 kilometers southeast of the Yemeni capital, Sanaa, sources explained to EFE, indicating that most of the injured suffered serious burns from the fires caused by the explosion.
In a first assessment, these sources pointed out that the explosion and the fires that it caused caused the instant death of five people, while five others died in an area hospital due to their serious injuries.
However, the spokesperson for the Ministry of Health of the Government of the Houthi rebels of Yemen, Anees al Asbahi, assured EFE that “the total number of victims amounts to 91 people; “17 deaths and 74 injuries, 50 of them serious.”
Witnesses contacted by EFE indicated that a fire in one of the tanks of a gas station in Al Zahir caused four explosions in an adjacent liquefied gas tank, which in turn generated enormous fireballs.
They noted that the area where the incident occurred is home to several gas depots and gas stations that serve as a “fuel market” for vehicles and homemade gas cylinders, and that several of them, as well as about 30 vehicleswere set on fire.
