At least 27 killed in Philippnes tanker truck blast
At least 27 people were killed and 13 others injured when a tanker truck exploded on a mountain road in the southern Philippines, police said today.
The truck was negotiating a downhill section of the road in Tigbao and apparently lost its brakes, slammed into the side of a mountain and overturned, killing the driver, said Senior Superintendent Ramon Ochotorena, police chief of Zamboanga del Sur province.
He said the tanker was carrying compressed carbon dioxide gas. Passing motorists tried to help extricate other truck crewmen.
Minutes later, someone shouted there was a fire, but before people could flee, the tanker exploded, demolishing the vehicle and blowing away the roof of a nearby minibus, Ochotorena said.
He said police recovered 24 bodies and the head of another person at the site, and body parts from a nearby ravine.
At least two other people died from their injuries in hospitals in Pagadian city, about 15 miles away, said social welfare officer Conchita San Diego.
