Mongolia Six Dead After Liquified Natural Gas Tanker Crashes

Six people have died - including three firefighters - after a truck carrying 60 tons of liquefied natural gas crashed and exploded in the Mongolian capital.

Hundreds of firefighters had been sent to battle the blaze following the collision with a car in Ulaanbaatar on Wednesday morning, officials said.

At least 11 people were injured, with the fire spreading to nearby buildings.

One local resident described how he initially thought a plane had crashed.
 
Erdenebold Sukhbaatar, a 40-year-old lawyer, told Reuters news agency the crash, which took place just after 01:00 local time (17:00 GMT on Tuesday), had felt like an earthquake, but was followed by a bright light.

"It was very strong. And then I've never seen such kind of, like, strong [explosion]. It was like 60, you know, tons, which means 60,000, litres [of gas] you know. It was like huge liquid gas."
 
He watched the ensuing fire spread to "almost three different buildings", climbing at speed.


  



BBC