A natural gas station in Ghana’s capital, Accra, has exploded, killing an unknown number of people, a government official said.



“Unfortunately there are some fatalities and we are working to have the numbers,” the deputy information minister, Kojo Oppong Nkrumah, told a local radio station. “There are quite a number also injured.” He said the initial blaze was largely under control and that about 200 police officers had been sent to the scene.



The explosion at about 7.30pm local time (1930 GMT) began at a state-owned GOIL liquefied natural gas station and spread to a Total petrol station across the street at the Atomic Junction, a Reuters witness said.

Frightened residents ran from the explosion, which sent a giant fireball high into the sky above the city, and at least six fire engines and several ambulances responded to the blast. A police spokeswoman, Efia Tenge, told AFP it was a gas explosion, and added: “I am in Legon [in north-easy Accra] and I heard two explosions. My whole building was shaking.”

The Accra city authorities warned people to avoid the area, which is also home to the University of Ghana campus.



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The blasts will revive memories of 4 June 2015, when more than 150 people were killed as they sought shelter from seasonal rains and flooding at a petrol station. Leaked fuel floating on top of rising waters had caught fire, burning down buildings and the filling station, trapping people in vehicles as the pumps exploded.

Kobby Boateng, a computer programmer, said he had returned to the university campus with his girlfriend on Saturday when the blast happened. “All of a sudden, we heard a boom and the flash of an explosion, which made the building just shake and the lights went out,” he said.



“People were rushing out of their rooms. Some of them were naked and the heat that was coming from that blast – my God, it was unbearable.”

An AFP correspondent said the area had been cordoned off. Fire crews and ambulances were at the scene.