Death toll rises to 16 in Gombe fuel tanker explosion

No fewer than 12 persons reportedly lost their lives while 15 others were injured on Saturday when the tanker exploded.

According to Channels TV, the petrol tanker was said to have had a brake failure and rammed into a truck loaded with bottled water, crushing two motorcycles and two tricycles in the process.

However, the Assistant Director of Nurses at the Federal Teaching Hospital, Gombe, Musa Gyade has confirmed that the number of casualties of the incident has increased to 16.

Gyade also said that 20 other victims sustained various degrees of burns.

He added that the victims were already receiving medical attention at both the Federal Teaching Hospital and the State Specialist Hospital in Gombe.

The assistant director also explained that 23 people were brought to the hospital, out of which three of them died while being treated and two more deaths were later recorded, Channels TV reports.