20 dead, 600 injured in Equatorial Guinea blasts

MALABO, Equatorial Guinea-At least 20 people were killed and hundreds injured on Sunday in explosions in the Equatorial Guinean city of Bata caused by an accident, authorities said.

Several warehouses containing explosives caught fire at the Nkoatama military camp in Bata following a blaze on nearby farms, and this in turn caused successive explosions, a statement from the presidency of Equatorial Guinea said.

Footage broadcast by the TVGE channel showed buildings burned and flattened in a wide radius around the camp in Bata, with thick plumes of black smoke rising into the sky.

Children and adults were seen being pulled from the rubble. There were chaotic scenes at the hospital in Bata, with the wounded lying on the floor awaiting treatment.

The health ministry warned in a tweet many residents could still be buried under the wreckage.

President Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo said the accident occurred after local farmers allowed a fire in the area to burn out of control, setting alight explosives that were badly stored by soldiers at the military camp.

"The city of Bata has been the victim of an accident caused by the negligence of the unit in charge of storing explosives, dynamite and ammunition," the president said in a statement.

"These caught fire due to stubble-burning by farmers in their fields which ultimately made these depots explode in succession."

The defense ministry put the death toll at at least 20, with some 600 people injured.

The "high caliber" explosives set off by the fire caused "shock waves" which razed many houses to the ground, the ministry added.

The president issued a plea for international aid.

The disaster comes at an already difficult time for Equatorial Guinea "due to the economic crisis caused by falling petrol prices and the COVID-19 pandemic", he said.

Bata is the largest city in the oiland gas-rich Central African nation, with around 800,000 of the nation's 1.4 million population living there.

While Bata sits on the mainland, the capital Malabo is on Bioko, one of the country's islands off the West African coast. Telephone communication between the two cities was cut off for several hours after the explosions.

The camp houses elements of the army's special forces and the paramilitary gendarmerie.

The president's jet-setting son Teodoro Nguema Obiang Mangue, vice-president with responsibility for defense and security, appeared in television footage at the scene inspecting the damage, accompanied by his Israeli bodyguards.

Search and rescue operations were going on. Health authorities have called on people to donate blood and encouraged volunteer health workers to help.

Xinhua - Agencies