At least seven dead in massive fuel tanker fire in Kabul
Kabul, May 2 (EFE).- At least seven people were killed after a huge fire engulfed several fuel tankers and containers in northern Kabul, officials said on Sunday.
Interior Ministry spokesperson Tariq Arian said that another 14 people were taken to hospital with injuries sustained in the blaze that broke out late Saturday. He did not rule out an increase in the death toll.
“It was not a terror attack. Our teams are working to find out the cause of the fire,” he added.
Arian explained the fire “started from a fuel tanker and then spread to others to reach a gas station.”
Dozens of fuel tankers and vehicles have been damaged in the blaze that ripped through tankers while waiting in line on a highway to enter the Afghan capital, to which big trucks and fuel tankers are allowed access after 9pm, according to Arian.
The fire caused power outages, leaving many parts of the city without electricity, according to Afghanistan’s power utility company.
The last major accident of this kind in May 2016 killed at least 73 people and injured 70 others after two buses full of passengers and a fuel tanker truck caught fire after colliding with each other on the Kabul-Kandahar highway in the eastern province of Ghazni. EFE
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