Map of Ghana, locating Apiate, some 300 km west of the capital Accra, where a truck carrying explosives collided with a motorcycle on Thursday, causing an immense explosion and a huge “loss of lives”, according to the Ghanaian president. Out of 59 people injured, 42 are receiving treatment in hospitals or health centres and “some are in critical condition”, Nkrumah added.

Ghanaian President Nana Akufo-Addo called it a “truly sad, unfortunate and tragic incident” and expressed “deep condolences to the families of the deceased”.

Officials and eyewitnesses described a scene of desolation against the sea of buildings collapsed or impaired in the carnage.

“It’s a black Thursday. So far 500 houses have been affected. Some have been razed down completely by the explosion while others have developed cracks,” Sedzi Sadzi Amedonu, Deputy Coordinator of the National Disaster Management Organization, told AFP.

“It’s almost like a ghost town now.”

Abena Mintah, who witnessed the blast, told local media the driver of the truck dropped down from his hatch, shouting at those nearby to warn them away from the flaming vehicle.

“Within a few minutes we heard a loud bang. I felt dizzy and fell in the bush. I managed to get up and saw a few dismembered bodies on the street,” Mintah said.

The government said those in critical condition would be moved to hospitals in Accra and police asked surrounding villages to open their schools and churches to accommodate any additional casualties.

A team of police and army explosion experts were deployed to “avoid a second explosion” and put in place security measures after the blast, the government said in a press release.

Emergency services were to give a casualty update on Friday at 11:00 am (1100 GMT).

Dr Isaac Dasmani, chief executive of the Prestea Huni-Valley municipality where the explosion occurred, told local media “the whole community is gone” after the blast.

“All of the roofs have been ripped off, some of the buildings have collapsed. Some were in their rooms, and were trapped. Some of them unfortunately, before we were able to rescue them, were already gone,” he told Ghana’s TV3 broadcaster.

Authorities have created an access route to the scene and were working to open roads on Friday to ease traffic around the blast site, he said.

Ghana has been rocked by several deadly explosions caused by fuel accidents in recent years.

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In 2017, at least three people were killed and dozens injured after a tanker truck carrying natural gas caught fire in Accra, triggering explosions at two fuel stations and killing three people.

Ghana’s capital was the scene of a similar fire and explosion in June 2015, when more than 150 people died as they sought shelter from seasonal rains and flooding at a petrol station. The blaze was believed to have spread by fuel on the floodwater.

Deadly accidents linked to the mining sector are also frequent in Ghana, Africa’s second largest gold producer after South Africa, but they are mostly caused by the collapse of mines, often illegal ones.

In June, at least nine people died in the collapse of an illegal mine in northern Ghana.