Aug. 15 (UPI) — At least 20 people were killed in a fuel tanker explosion in Lebanon on Sunday morning, the Lebanese Red Cross said.
The Red Cross tweeted that 20 people had died and 79 were injured in the blast in the Akkar region with 24 ambulances and 75 EMTs responding to the scene.
A search for missing people was also underway at the scene.
The cause of the explosion remained under investigation but some of the people injured in the blast said they were attempting to siphon gas from a nearby warehouse, Lebanon’s National News Agency reported.
The Lebanese Army had been present at the site earlier in the day after men discovered the stored fuel.
People rushed to the area to fill the remaining gas in the tank after the army left.
The army had previously announced it was raiding gas stations and “confiscating the stored quantities of gasoline” with the nation in the midst of a fuel crisis.
Officials did not reveal the identity of the tanker’s owner but citizens set fire to the home of a man suspected of hoarding the fuel Sunday.
On Saturday, the American University of Beirut Medical Center announced it would be forced to shut down by Monday as it had run out of fuel to power its private generators, warning that at least 40 adults and 15 children living on respirators would die.
Former Prime Minister Saad Hariri called for Lebanese President Michael Aoun and other government officials “responsible for this neglect” to resign after the explosion in a tweet Sunday.
“The lives and security of the Lebanese are a priority,” Hariri wrote.
Aoun on Sunday called on the country to show “the utmost levels of solidarity in these difficult circumstances and transcending over wounds and divisions.”