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Waco Texas explosion: Up to 70 people feared dead and 100 injured after massive blast at fertiliser factory

Waco Texas explosion: Up to 70 people feared dead and 100 injured after massive blast at fertiliser factory
Up to 70 people are feared dead and 100 injured after a massive blast at a fertiliser factory in Texas.The explosion at West Fertlizer in the town of West, near to Waco, destroyed numerous buildings and homes including a nursing home and an apartment block of 50 flats.Firefighters were tackling a blaze at the factory when the explosion happened shortly before 8pm local time.The blast - which sent a fireball shooting into the air - could be heard 45 miles away.Several people are still feared trapped i buildings and there are unconfirmed reports that some firefighters are missing.Emergency services have said the death toll could go up "by the minute".West's Emergency Medical Services Director Dr George Smith told a local TV station that firefighters had told him that as many as 60 or 70 people were dead.The fire is still raging in parts, but fire crews have stopped tackling it in case there is another explosion.Chief executive of Hillcrest Baptist Medical Center in Waco, Glenn A Robinson, told CNN that his hospital had received 66 injured people including 38 who were seriously hurt.He said the injuries included blast injuries, orthopaedic injuries, large wounds and a lot of lacerations and cuts, and the hospital had set up a hotline for families of the victims to get information.McLennan County Sheriff Parnell McNamara said: "It's a lot of devastation. I've never seen anything like this. It looks like a war zone with all the debris."Aerial footage showed fires still smouldering in the ruins of the plant and in several surrounding buildings, and people being treated for injuries on the floodlit local football field, which had been turned into a staging area for emergency crews.Resident Debby Marak said that when she finished teaching her religion class, she noticed a lot of smoke coming from the area across town near the plant, which is near a nursing home.She said she drove over to see what was happening, and that when she got out of her car two boys ran toward her screaming that the authorities told them to leave because the plant was going to explode."It was like being in a tornado," the 58-year-old said. "Stuff was flying everywhere. It blew out my windshield. It was like the whole earth shook."More than two hours after the blast, there were still fires smouldering in what was left of the plant and others burning in nearby buildings.Department of Public Safety troopers were using their squad cars to transport those injured by the blast, Gayle Scarbrough, a spokeswoman for the department's Waco office, told television station KWTX.She said six helicopters were also en route to help out.American Red Cross crews from across Texas were being sent to the site, the organisation said.Red Cross spokeswoman Anita Foster said the group was working with emergency management officials in West to find a afe shelter for residents displaced from their homes.Country music legend Willie Nelson sent out his prayers after the blast hit near where he grew up."West has been in my backyard all my life," he tweeted. "My heart is praying for the community that we call home."When not on the road touring, Nelson has lived in Austin, Texas, since 1971, but he was born and grew up 120 miles north of the state capital, in Abbott, which is about five miles north of West.



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