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At least 20 people have died after a series of large explosions at a military base in the city of Bata in Equatorial Guinea.
More than 400 people were also injured in the explosions at the military barracks in the Mondong Nkuantoma neighborhood.
In a statement on national television, President Teodoro Obiang said the explosions were caused by “negligent handling of dynamite” at the base.
People run through the rubble to escape the explosions.
The Health Ministry said doctors are treating the injured at the site, but there are fears that people are missing under the rubble.
The TVGE news channel asked people to donate blood and said the hospitals in the Central African nation were full of people injured in the blasts.
A doctor who called TVGE, calling himself Florentino, said the situation was a “time of crisis” and that the hospitals were overcrowded.
He said that a sports center created for COVID-19 patients would be used to receive minor cases.
The radio station, Radio Macuto, said that people were being evacuated 4 km from the city because the fumes could be harmful.
The explosions are believed to have been caused by ‘negligent handling of dynamite’
Footage from the scene shows firefighters responding to people on the street and destroyed buildings.
Trucks full of survivors, many of whom were children, headed to the front of a local hospital where some victims were filmed lying on the ground.
In the area of the blast, iron roofs were ripped from houses and twisted in the rubble.
