Saturday night was a nightmare for residents of Atomic Junction, Madina and its environs, as a gas station exploded, throwing up a huge fireball and plunging the area into chaos.
Official figures on dead and wounded have not been released yet but there’s no question there would be mass casualties from the disaster, an ugly reminder of June 3rd 2015 and how little we’ve progressed since then.
As usual with bad news about Africa, the international media did not take long to start reporting on it. BBC, CNN, Reuters, Al Jazeera, Mail Online and others all quickly posted reports on their websites or reported on air.
GhanaCelebrities.Com has gathered together these reports, read through below.
First, CNN reported the breaking news on air during a bulletin.

MailOnline wrote under the heading “Monster fireball lights up the night sky in Ghana after Atomic Junction petrol station explodes and forces thousands to flee for their lives”.

A petrol station in Ghana’s capital Accra exploded on Saturday evening, killing an unknown number of people, a government official said.

Footage shows a gigantic fireball lighting up the night sky after the fueling station at Atomic Junction exploded forcing hundreds to flee.

Deputy Information Minister Kojo Oppong Nkrumah said: ‘Unfortunately there are some fatalities and we are working to have the numbers. There are quite a number also injured.’

The blaze started at 7.30pm local time (8.30pm GMT) but it now said to be under control with the government planning to release casualty figures later today.

The Guardian‘s headline was “Gas station explosion shakes Ghana’s capital”.

A natural gas station in Ghana’s capital, Accra, has exploded, killing an unknown number of people, a government official said.
“Unfortunately there are some fatalities and we are working to have the numbers,” the deputy information minister, Kojo Oppong Nkrumah, told a local radio station. “There are quite a number also injured.” He said the initial blaze was largely under control and that about 200 police officers had been sent to the scene.
The explosion at about 7.30pm local time (1930 GMT) began at a state-owned GOIL liquefied natural gas station and spread to a Total petrol station across the street at the Atomic Junction, a Reuters witness said.
Frightened residents ran from the explosion, which sent a giant fireball high into the sky above the city, and at least six fire engines and several ambulances responded to the blast. A police spokeswoman, Efia Tenge, told AFP it was a gas explosion, and added: “I am in Legon [in north-easy Accra] and I heard two explosions. My whole building was shaking.”

“‘Deadly’ gas station blasts rock Ghana’s capital Accra”, Al Jazeera wrote about the explosion.

A tanker has caught fire at a gas-filling station in Ghana’s capital, Accra, triggering two explosions and killing an unknown number of people, according to an official.
Police said the blasts happened in the Atomic Junction roundabout area of Legon, in northeast Accra, at about 7:30pm (19:30 GMT) on Saturday.
“Unfortunately, there are some fatalities and we are working to have the numbers,” Deputy Information Minister Kojo Oppong Nkrumah told a local radio station. “There are quite a number also injured.”
The explosion began at a state-owned GOIL liquefied natural gas station and spread to a Total petrol station across the street, sending a giant fireball high into the night sky and forcing frightened residents to flee.
“It’s too early for us to know the cause of the fire. We will investigate,” Ghana National Fire Service spokesman Billy Anaglate told AFP news agency. “There are some vehicles that were also burned as a result of the explosions.”

International news agency Reuters headlined the story, “Gas explosion rocks Ghana’s capital Accra, causing fatalities”

A natural gas station in Ghana’s capital Accra exploded on Saturday evening, killing an unknown number of people, a government official said.

“Unfortunately there are some fatalities and we are working to have the numbers,” Deputy Information Minister Kojo Oppong Nkrumah told a local radio station. “There are quite a number also injured.”

He added that the main blaze was largely under control and that the government planned to release casualty figures on Sunday morning.

Several eyewitnesses told Reuters they had counted four or five bodies, although some bodies could have already been removed from the scene.

The explosion at around 7:30 p.m. local time (1930 GMT) began at a state-owned GOIL liquefied natural gas station and spread to a Total petrol station across the street at the city’s Atomic Junction, a Reuters witness said.

And finally, the BBC titled their story, “Ghana’s capital rocked by huge gas blasts”.