Explosion kills 13, flattens village in Ghana mining region

Debris of houses and other buildings that were destroyed when a vehicle carrying mining explosives detonated along a road in Apiate, Ghana, January 21, 2022. Picture taken with a drone. REUTERS/Cooper Inveen

APIATE, Ghana (Reuters) -At least 13 people were killed and scores injured when a truck carrying explosives to a gold mine in western Ghana detonated, flattening a rural community, the police said on Friday.

Smouldering timber and torn-up sheet metal marked where hundreds of houses had stood in Apiate, a settlement about 200 km (130 miles) west of the capital Accra. Thursday's blast left a crater roughly 20 meters (66 ft) wide. Doors and roofs were blown off other buildings, a Reuters reporter at the scene said.