Death toll in Kenya pipeline explosion rises to 82

A Red Cross official says the death toll from a gasoline pipeline explosion in the Kenyan capital has risen to 82.

Red Cross coordinator Pamela Indiaka said Tuesday six more bodies had been recovered from a sewage-filled river running through the middle of Nairobi’s Sinai slum. She says 75 bodies were recovered on Monday.

Residents were searching the river themselves on Tuesday, wading through the sewage and charred bodies with only plastic gloves for protection. They used sticks to prod along the bottom of the river, feeling for the bodies of family members.

The head of the state-owned Kenya Pipeline Company says Monday’s explosion was caused by an over-pressurized pipeline. The gasoline inside leaked out into a sewer and the river running through the slum and then ignited.

AP