MUSCAT: The Sultanate, through a statement from the Foreign Ministry, expressed its condolences and sympathy to the government and people of the brotherly Lebanese Republic on the victims of the fuel tank explosion in Akkar in northern Lebanon, wishing the injured a speedy recovery.
A fuel tank blast in Lebanon on Sunday killed 28 people and left nearly 80 others injured, authorities and medics said, scalding a crowd that was clamouring for gasoline in the crisis-hit country.
The night-time tragedy in the country's remote north overwhelmed medical facilities and heaped new misery on a nation already beset by an economic crisis and severe fuel shortages that have crippled hospitals and caused long power cuts.
It revived bitter memories of an enormous explosion at Beirut port in August last year that killed more than 200 people and destroyed swathes of the capital.
An adviser to the health ministry said the death toll from the blast in Al Tleil village, in the Akkar region, had climbed to 28. The Lebanese Red Cross said 79 others were injured.
The military said a fuel tank that "had been confiscated by the army to distribute to citizens" exploded just before 2:00 am. Soldiers were among those hurt.
The army began raiding gas stations on Saturday to curb hoarding by suppliers following a central bank decision to scrap fuel subsidies. The official National News Agency (NNA) said the blast followed scuffles between "residents that gathered around the container to fill up gasoline" overnight.
Hospitals in Akkar, one of Lebanon's poorest regions near the border with Syria, and in the northern port city of Tripoli said they had to turn away many of the injured because they were ill-equipped to treat severe burns.
"The corpses are so charred that we can't identify them," said Yassine Metlej, an employee at a Akkar hospital where seven bodies and dozens of injured were brought.
"Some have lost their faces, others their arms," Metlej said.
Health Minister Hamad Hassan said he was in contact with several countries to evacuate serious burn cases abroad, including Turkey, Kuwait and Jordan.
Unable to seek treatment in Akkar, Ismail al Sheikh, 23, who sustained burns to his arms and legs, was driven by his sister Marwa to the Geitawi hospital in Beirut, some 80 km away.
"At night, we were informed that the army was distributing gasoline... so people flocked to fill it in plastic containers... straight from the tank," Marwa said.
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