20 Killed, 600 Injured In Equatorial Guinea Military Camp Explosions

At least 20 people were killed and hundreds injured after four accidental explosions ripped through a military camp in Equatorial Guinea and obliterated neighbouring residential areas.

Footage broadcast showed buildings burned and flattened in a wide radius around the Nkoa Ntoma camp in the economic capital Bata, with a thick plume 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 disclosed this in a tweet that many residents could still be buried under the wreckage.

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

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

The “high calibre” explosives set off by the fire caused “shockwaves” which razed many houses to the ground, the ministry added.