Death toll reaches 33 in Diyarbakır tanker accident

DİYARBAKIR – Doğan News Agency

A tanker truck carrying liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) on July 22 overturned and exploded on a highway near the town of Lice in southeast Turkey. DHA Photo

The Death toll from a tanker truck accident on July 22 in southeast Turkey has increased to 33 with the deaths of three more patients in different hospitals this week.

Police officer Akif Çakır died Aug. 5. Two injured passengers, Özlem Şimal and Ahmet Şen, who were being treated in hospitals in Adana and Ankara died on Aug. 6.

A tanker truck carrying liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) on July 22 overturned and exploded on a highway in southeast Turkey, immediately killing one and injuring at least 66 people.

The accident caused a large blast and a fireball that engulfed two passenger buses and other vehicles also traveling on the road near the town of Lice, around 150 kilometers north of the city of Diyarbakır.

The tanker truck driver, identified only as F.Y., lost control of the vehicle and overturned on the road at around midnight.

It took two hours for firefighters to bring the fire under control, Doğan News Agency reported.

Two buses also stopped and passengers helped F.Y. escape the vehicle. F.Y. reportedly told the passengers that gas was leaking from the truck and warned them to stay away from it. However, at that point the explosion took place, wounding dozens. Flames from the truck also damaged two buses and a car. The names of the 33 people who died in the accident are as following.

Önder Ubiç, Ferman Erden, Fikri Tartik, Mehmet Sıddık Yaşar, Şükrü Yıldırım, Ali Ağırbaş, Gülhan Tartik, Haşim Bozova, Yasin Akşit, Mafuz Bulak, Ramazan Basanbaş, Gökhan Pişkin, Mahmut Bayraktar, Ömer Faruk Tartik, Abdullah Ergörmüş, Mehmet Mustafa Altan, Murat Arslan, Nurgül Kırnaz, Yusuf Aziz Doster, Sinan Aluç, Emirhan Kırnaz, Seranur Kırnaz, Mehmet Zeki Bingül, Zülküf Ulaş, Nurullah Nazlı, Orhan Aydın, Aslan Doğan, Zeynep Kılıç, Halil İbrahim Kırmızıkan, Yasin Çalkandır, Akif Çakır, Özlem Şimal, Ahmet Şen.