At least one person died Saturday morning after a fuel tanker caught fire and exploded following an accident along Southern bypass in Nairobi.
Police said the victim was one of the drivers of the two trucks involved in the accident.
Another driver was rescued and rushed to the hospital, Langata police boss Pius Mwanthi said.
He said he was in a stable condition.
“We had one death of the driver in the lorry with unga while the one on the tanker was rushed to the hospital. The scene is being cleared,” he said.
The incident happened after a lorry carrying bales of flour and another which had fuel collided near a bridge behind Carnivore Restaurant.
The incident forced the fuel tanker to slide into a bridge and caught fire.
Police officers and other emergency responders cleared the scene and kept members of the public away feari the risk of a secondary explosion caused by spilled oil.
Emergency service providers rushed to a site as police closed the busy Southern bypass to manage the fire.
The fire threatened the nearby structures.
Witnesses said some road users including bodaboda riders had rushed to the scene to scoop the fuel that had spilled after the accident. Police had to chase some of them from the scene.
Such past incidents left dozens of people dead and injured.
A similar incident happened in Sachangwan in Nakuru and left more than 100 people dead in 2009.
Police said they have been witnessing a trend where the public rush to siphon fuel from lorries involved in accidents which they said was dangerous.
