Fuel Truck Blast Kills 13 in Kenya

NAIROBI - Police said Sunday that 13 people were killed and many others seriously burned when an overturned petrol tanker exploded in western Kenya as crowds thronged to collect the spilling fuel.

The fuel truck collided with another vehicle and toppled over late Saturday near Malanga, some 315 kilometers northwest of Nairobi, on the busy highway between Kisumu and the border with Uganda. Onlookers rushed to the scene with jerrycans but the cargo exploded, engulfing those around in a fireball. "It burst into flames as they scooped fuel that was flowing," said Charles Chacha, a local police chief in Siaya County where the accident occurred.