A fuel tank blast in Lebanon Sunday killed 28 people and nearly 80 others injured, authorities and medics said, scalding a crowd that was clamouring for gasoline in the crisis-hit country.
The night-time tragedy in the country's remote north 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.
The army began raiding gas stations Saturday to curb hoarding by suppliers following a central bank decision to scrap fuel subsidies. 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, some 80 kilometres away."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 told AFP.
The American University of Beirut Medical Centre, the country's top private hospital, said it would close by Monday morning if it doesn't secure diesel to power generators, risking hundreds of lives.President Michel Aoun ordered a probe into the blast and chaired an emergency meeting of the defence council, his office said.
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