According to a news update, a gasoline truck exploded in Northern Haiti which killed at least 40 people and injured dozens officials and news reports said Tuesday.
The dreadful blast occurred late Monday in the Cap-Haitien city, where the Prime Minister Ariel Henry highlighted that he was devastated by the news.
“Three days of national mourning will be decreed throughout the territory, in memory of the victims of this tragedy that the entire Haitian nation is grieving,” he tweeted.
Henry also said that his administration is trying its best to deploy on-field hospital services to the area in order to help those who are affected by the incident.
No further updates are readily available about the incident at the moment as police have turned down calls requesting information.
Le Nouvelliste newspaper reported that there were dozens of people with injuries and people were seeking hospital supplies.
“We are overwhelmed,” a person identified as Dr. Calhil Turenne told the paper.
A civil engineer, Dave Larose, who works in Cap-Haitien has reported that he was driving when he saw dozens of ambulances and a crowd of people gathered at the field around 1 a.m.
He observed that some people were using buckets in order to scoop up gasoline from the truck to take it back to their houses. The explosion occurred as Haiti was suffering from shortage of gas and fuel to upsoar in prices.
“It’s terrible what our country has to go through” Larose said.
Former Prime Minister Claude Joseph also mourned the victims, tweeting, “I share the pain and sorrow of all the people.”
