Tanzania declares 3 days of national mourning for victims of oil tanker explosion

During the mourning period, the national flag will fly at half-mast. The three-day mourning will last from Saturday to Monday. An oil tanker explosion had killed over 60 people and injured 70 others in Morogoro.

Dodoma:Tanzanian President John Magufuli on Saturday declared three days of national mourning following an oil tanker explosion that killed over 60 people and injured 70 others in Morogoro.

The statement by the Directorate of Presidential Communication at State House in the commercial capital Dar es Salaam said that three-day mourning will last from Saturday to Monday.

"During the mourning period, the national flag will fly at half-mast," said the statement, adding that the President will send Prime Minister Kassim Majaliwa to Morogoro to represent him at the burial of the victims starting later on Sunday.

The Morogoro regional police commander, Wilbroad Mutafungwa said that the number of deaths could rise further as most of the 70 injured persons were in critical condition.

An oil tanker overturned in Morogoro, the capital of the Morogoro Region, early on Saturday. The explosion happened when people tried to scoop oil coming out of the tanker.

Incidents of people being killed in explosions while stealing fuel from incapacitated tankers are common in East Africa.

In 2013, a similar deadly incident killed at least 29 people on the outskirts of the Ugandan capital, Kampala, as scores swarmed around the scene of an accident.