A leaking gasoline pipeline in Kenya's capital exploded on Monday, turning part of a slum into an inferno in which at least 61 people were killed and more than 100 hurt.
Flames leapt out from the pipeline in a radius of some 300 yards (meters), setting shacks ablaze and incinerating scores of people. Reporters later saw clusters of charred bodies and blackened bones at the site. Some burned bodies floated in a nearby river filled with sewage. Homes had been built right up to the pipeline, the residents said.The blast happened as people were trying to scoop up fuel that had spilled from a nearby tank in a densely populated slum in the capital, Nairobi.
Children at a nearby school are believed to be among the victims.
Local television reports showed horrific images of smouldering bodies and badly burnt victims trying to flee as the fire raged through the area.
Witnesses said firefighters scrambled across the corrugated rooftops of burning shacks to pour foam over the flames.They had told Odinga that the explosion was caused by a leak from the pipeline into nearby sewage, he said. Workers who answered the phones at their offices declined to give a comment or their names.
"There will be a proper investigation," Odinga said.
In 2009, at least 120 people were killed when they were trying to scoop fuel spilled from a crashed petrol tanker in Kenya and it exploded.
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