{"id":10115,"date":"2023-12-07T15:57:23","date_gmt":"2023-12-07T15:57:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/qiraatafrican.com\/en\/?p=10115"},"modified":"2023-12-07T15:57:23","modified_gmt":"2023-12-07T15:57:23","slug":"seychelles-blast-site-like-a-war-zone-says-president-ramkalawan","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/qiraatafrican.com\/en\/10115\/seychelles-blast-site-like-a-war-zone-says-president-ramkalawan\/","title":{"rendered":"Seychelles blast site like a war zone, says President Ramkalawan"},"content":{"rendered":"
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A massive explosion at an industrial zone on Seychelles’ main island, Mah\u00e9, left the place looking “as if we went through a war”, President Wavel Ramkalawan has said.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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It had ripped through the area leaving a trail of devastation.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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No deaths have been reported so far, but one person is in intensive care.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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The blast, along with flooding caused by heavy rains, led to a state of emergency being declared, which has now been lifted.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Earlier on Thursday President Ramkalawan ordered everyone except essential workers to stay at home.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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The explosion happened just after 02:00 local time (22:00 GMT Wednesday) at a construction and quarrying company, where explosives were being stored in four containers.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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“For the last 10 years there were major concerns about the stock of explosives [being held],”\u00a0President Ramkalawan is quoted by the Seychelles Nation newspaper as saying<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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“Four containers of explosives blew off… My heart is heavy right now and I know many families are being affected. I was shocked to see Providence, Petit Paris and Cascade in such a state. It was as if we went through a war.”<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Describing the scale of the blast, Seychelles Minister of Fisheries Jean-Fran\u00e7ois Ferrari said: “The explosion was so so big and so loud… that it left a hole 13 metres in the ground… and blasted away windows, doors, roofs of many commercial buildings.”<\/p>\n

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The international airport was also damaged, despite being 4km (2.5 miles) away. Schools are shut and hospitals closed to all but emergency cases.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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More than 170 casualties were reported, most with light injuries. Five people have been admitted to hospital and one of those is in intensive care.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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The only movement allowed is into and out of the holiday islands. Seychelles’ economy is heavily reliant on tourism.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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“The Seychelles international Airport is still operational and ferry services between islands are operating for visitors,”\u00a0the country’s official account said on X.<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Exceptionally heavy rain overnight has caused severe flooding and landslides, adding to pressure on the island’s response teams.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Three people died when their homes were destroyed.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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The deluge has caused sewage to flow into the ocean and people are being advised not to swim.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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President Ramkalawan called the twin disasters a “calamity” for the country and appealed for people to show solidarity to those affected.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A massive explosion at an industrial zone on Seychelles’ main island, Mah\u00e9, left the place looking “as if we went through a war”, President Wavel Ramkalawan has said. It had ripped through the area leaving a trail of devastation. No deaths have been reported so far, but one person is in intensive care. The blast, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":10117,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"iawp_total_views":0,"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":{"source_name":"BBC","source_url":"","via_name":"","via_url":"","override_template":"0","override":[{"template":"1","single_blog_custom":"","parallax":"1","fullscreen":"1","layout":"right-sidebar","sidebar":"default-sidebar","second_sidebar":"default-sidebar","sticky_sidebar":"1","share_position":"top","share_float_style":"share-monocrhome","show_share_counter":"0","show_view_counter":"0","show_featured":"1","show_post_meta":"1","show_post_author":"0","show_post_author_image":"1","show_post_date":"1","post_date_format":"default","post_date_format_custom":"Y\/m\/d","show_post_category":"0","show_post_reading_time":"0","post_reading_time_wpm":"300","show_zoom_button":"0","zoom_button_out_step":"2","zoom_button_in_step":"3","show_post_tag":"1","show_prev_next_post":"0","show_popup_post":"0","number_popup_post":"1","show_author_box":"0","show_post_related":"1","show_inline_post_related":"1"}],"override_image_size":"0","image_override":[{"single_post_thumbnail_size":"crop-500","single_post_gallery_size":"crop-500"}],"trending_post":"0","trending_post_position":"meta","trending_post_label":"Trending","sponsored_post":"0","sponsored_post_label":"Sponsored by","sponsored_post_name":"","sponsored_post_url":"","sponsored_post_logo_enable":"0","sponsored_post_logo":"","sponsored_post_desc":"","disable_ad":"0"},"jnews_primary_category":{"id":"","hide":""},"jnews_social_meta":[],"jnews_override_counter":{"override_view_counter":"0","view_counter_number":"0","override_share_counter":"0","share_counter_number":"0","override_like_counter":"0","like_counter_number":"0","override_dislike_counter":"0","dislike_counter_number":"0"},"footnotes":""},"categories":[29,1129],"tags":[1551,1815],"class_list":["post-10115","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-east-africa","category-security","tag-seychelles","tag-wavel-ramkalawan"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/qiraatafrican.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10115","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/qiraatafrican.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/qiraatafrican.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qiraatafrican.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qiraatafrican.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10115"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/qiraatafrican.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10115\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qiraatafrican.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/10117"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/qiraatafrican.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10115"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qiraatafrican.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10115"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qiraatafrican.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10115"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}