Over a hundred people are feared dead and more have been hospitalized after a pipeline explosion rocked the Nairobi slum of Sinai on Monday, according to local media reports.
The explosion occurred at a pipeline section in the Lunga Lunga district, which is heavily packed with tin shanties and shacks.
“There had been a leak in the fuel pipeline earlier, and people were going to collect the fuel that was coming out,” resident Joseph Mwego told Kenya’s Capital FM News. “Then there was a loud bang, a big explosion, and smoke and fire burst up high.”
A local police commander estimates that more than 100 died in the blast but a local Red Cross official said it was difficult to know how many died since some were swept away by a nearby river.
A BBC report suggests that the blast may have been triggered by a single cigarette butt thrown into a sewer filled with fuel.
Five years ago, up to 500 people were killed in a Nigeria explosion after the pipe was broken open. In that incident, people swarmed to the pipeline to try and collect fuel spilling out.
In Africa, it is common for oil leaks or pipeline sabotages to draw large crowds of people, who then attempt to collect fuel.
