Gas blast kills 3 in Kenya

A huge gas blast in the Kenyan capital, Nairobi, has killed at least three people and injured nearly 300.

Housing, businesses and cars were damaged, with video showing a huge blaze raging close to blocks of flats.

A lorry carrying gas exploded in Embakasi district at about 23:30 (20:30 GMT), ‘igniting a huge ball of fire’, a government spokesperson said. 

Earlier, the government had said the blast happened at a gas plant. The cause is still being established.

Embakasi police chief Wesley Kimeto said a child was among those who died in the explosion, adding that the death toll could rise. 

The Kenya Red Cross said it had taken 271 people to hospital and treated 27 others on site. 

The fireball from the blast had ‘spread widely’, according to Isaac Mwaura Mwaura, the government spokesman, and a flying gas cylinder had hit a garments and textiles warehouse, burning it down.

“The inferno further damaged several vehicles and commercial properties, including many small and medium sized businesses,” he said in a statement. 

“Sadly, residential houses in the neighbourhood also caught fire, with a good number of residents still inside, as it was late at night.”

Witnesses told local media they had felt tremors immediately after the blast.

Many of the injured are said to have inhalation injuries and they include at least 25 children, the Standard newspaper reports.