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Monday, September 12, 2011

Kenya fire: Nairobi pipeline blaze 'kills at least 75'



Scores of people have died after a petrol pipeline explosion and fire in Kenya's capital, Nairobi.

The blast took place in the city's Lunga Lunga industrial area, and police and troops cordoned off the area as firefighters battled fierce flames in the surrounding shanty town.

A Red Cross official, Pamela Indiaka, said at least 75 bodies had been recovered. Some reports put the toll at more than 100 dead.

More than 110 people were injured.

The pipeline runs through the densely populated Sinai slum area between Nairobi's city centre and the airport.

'Parts of bodies'

Reports suggest the blast may have been sparked by a cigarette butt being thrown into an open sewer that was filling with fuel.

The fuel had leaked into a storm drain from the Nairobi-Mombasa pipeline, the Kenya Pipeline Company said in a statement.

Residents said the spill had prompted many people to rush and collect leaking fuel.

Parts of bodies littered the remains of burning shacks for some 300m (1,000ft) around the site of the blast, locals said.

Some of the shacks were built on top of the pipeline, residents say.

"Then there was a loud bang, a big explosion, and smoke and fire burst up high," resident Joseph Mwego told Agence France-Presse.

Bodies were also seen floating in a nearby river, into which burns victims had reportedly leapt after catching fire.

TV images showed survivors staggering around in a daze, with skin peeling off their faces and arms, and schoolchildren running in all directions.

One of the survivors, Jane Mumbua, said many people were close to the pipeline at the time of the blast.

"I just heard a big blast and that's when I started seeing people on fire. All around me there was fire," she said.

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