Death Toll Hist 90 As Ghana President Announces 3 Days National Mourning

Yesterday, Ghanaian President, John Dramani Mahama officially announced a 3-day national mourning after fire broke out at a filling station in the Kwame Nkrumah Circle area of Accra late on Wednesday night killing at least 90 people in heavily flooded area. The President described the loss of life as “catastrophic and almost unprecedented”, as he toured the scene of the disaster on Thursday morning.

"Rescue operations will continue until the weekend, Sunday. On Monday, we will observe three days of national mourning for the victims of the fire disaster and flooding. A lot of people have lost their lives and I am lost for words."

"As at now, the confirmed figure is hovering around 90 but I know it will be more than that. The relevant agencies are doing the tally". National Police spokesman, Arthur Cephas told AFP.

Ghana National Fire Service spokesman, Billy Anaglate said victims were being discovered during the salvage operations, making an exact death toll difficult to establish.“If we begin taking any of those numbers we have gotten and we are working and we are getting a new one, we’ll begin changing the figures that we are giving,” he added.

Local hospitals said morgues were full and security officials said the death toll was likely to rise, as fire investigators picked through the charred debris to determine what caused the inferno.