Officials in Equatorial Guinea have appealed for international help following a series of explosions that left at least 15 people dead and 500 injured.
The cause of the blasts has been put down to an accident at a military base.
In a statement read out on national television, President Teodoro Obiang Nguema said the explosions had been caused by the negligence of the team in charge of storing dynamite inside the military base.
That put an end to the hours of speculation over what exactly had happened.
It’s not surprising that the health services were quickly overwhelmed – these were extremely powerful explosions that flattened homes and tore the roofs off buildings.
Videos from the scene showed injured people staggering through clouds of smoke to reach safety.
What’s not clear is how many people were trapped under the rubble.
BBC