DUSHANBE, October 25, 2011, Asia-Plus — An explosion at a fuel tank has reportedly left more than 50 people dead in the Libyan city of Sirte.
The BBC reports National Transitional Council commander Leith Mohammed said that the blast happened late on Monday.
“There was an enormous explosion and a huge fire,” he was quoted as telling AFP, adding that there were “dozens of charred bodies” at the scene.
The explosion happened as a crowd waited nearby to fill their cars. The exact number of people who were killed and injured in the explosion was not yet clear. According to one NTC official and the Syria-based Al-Rai television station, more than 100 people died.
An NTC spokesman said a cabinet minister would provide further details in a news conference later in the day, the Associated Press reports.
One eyewitness quoted by the Associated Press said that at least 11 people were brought to the town”s Ibn Sina Hospital with serious burns on Monday.
Tirana Hassan, a researcher for the New York-based Human Rights Watch, said nurses said they had been injured in the fuel depot blast.
Sirte, the devastated hometown of former Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi, was the last bastion of resistance to NTC forces and the site of his capture last week.
In the meantime, Colonel Gaddafi was reportedly “buried in secret, desert grave at dawn.” International media outlets reported today that the bodies of ex-Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi, his son Muatassim and a top aide have been buried in secret in the desert.
A National Transitional Council (NTC) official told the BBC the bodies were buried at dawn in an unknown location.
The Associated Press reported on October 25 that it received confirmation in a text from a military council official in Misrata that the burial took place at a secret location at 05:00 local time. A few relatives and officials were in attendance as Islamic prayers were read over the bodies, spokesman Ibrahim Beitalmal is quoted as saying.
A NTC official had earlier told Reuters news agency that Col Gaddafi would be buried in a “simple” ceremony with “sheikhs attending” on Tuesday.
