Thirty-five people were injured, four of them seriously, after an explosion caused by a gas leak on Thursday at a state oil company in Tunisia’s southern suburbs.
Civil Protection spokesman Moez Teraa said a gas leak led to the explosion of gas bottles (for domestic use) within a company for the exploitation and distribution of gas in the oil region of Rades in the southern suburbs of Tunisia.
According to the official spokesman for the Civil Protection, all the injured employees of this company who suffer from first- and second-degree burns, were transferred to the hospital, where four of them suffer serious injuries.
For its part, the Ministry of Industry, Mines and Energy said in a press statement that the fire that broke out at a gas depot belonging to the National Oil Distribution Company Ajil in Rades was controlled.
The ministry added that an investigation has been opened to find out the circumstances of this incident, without referring to the material damage.
Ajil ranks first in Tunisia in the distribution of hydrocarbons and the marketing of petroleum products and their derivatives and has a network of more than 250 service stations in the country.
Tunisian Minister of Defense inspects military facilities in the capital