Blast in Congo arms dump kills more than 200

More than 200 people were killed yesterday when an arms dump exploded in Brazzaville, ripping apart a nearby neighbourhood in the Congo Republic’s capital, medical and local authorities said.

Around 200 more were injured by the blasts which rocked the riverside capital at around 8am local time, flattening houses and sending a plume of smoke high above the city.

“I saw someone being carried to hospital with their intestines hanging out. They had been hit by a shell,” one witness told Reuters as he was leaving the blast zone.