Explosion in Riyadh : 22 killed, 111 wounded

RIYADH - Reuters

REUTERS photo

22 people were killed, 111 wounded when a fuel truck crashed into a flyover in the Saudi capital Riyadh today, triggering an explosion that brought down an industrial building, according to Saudi state television, Reuters reported.

The building, several storeys high, was almost levelled by the blast, with only one corner left standing. Several adjacent buildings were damaged and nearby vehicles, including a minibus on the flyover, were set on fire, witnesses said. Television footage of the disaster and pictures posted on social media showed a body lying by burnt-out vehicles, and at least two charred bodies seated in a car. A civil defence official at the scene, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said a petrol tanker had crashed into a concrete flyover. He and other officials were unable to give further details of the incident.

"I was inside the building when the blast came. Then boom, the building collapsed. Furniture, chairs and cabinets blasted into the room I was in," said survivor Kushnoo Akhtara, a 55-year-old Pakistani worker, who was covered in dirt and bleeding from multiple cuts over his body.

"My brother is still inside under the rubble. There are lots of people in there."

Over a hundred emergency personnel were combing the wreckage on the flyover and searching for victims in the rubble of the building, which housed operations of Zahid Tractor, a distributor of heavy machinery.