Port-au-Prince : At least 62 people were killed when a gas tanker truck exploded in Cap-Haitien, Haiti's second-largest city located on the northern coast; medics say the toll was set to rise. The blast is the latest disaster to hit the poverty-wracked Caribbean nation, riven by gang violence, political paralysis, and acute fuel shortages.

Scores of people were injured, and Prime Minister Ariel Henry said he was heading to the scene along with extra doctors and health workers. Deputy Mayor Patrick Almonor described a horrific scene at the blast site. I saw more than 50 people "burned alive"; it was "impossible to identify them."- he added. Almonor said around 40 houses in the area were also set ablaze, but that no details were yet available on possible victim numbers inside the homes.
According to Almonor, the truck is believed to have flipped over after the driver lost control while swerving to avoid a motorcycle taxi.

Fuel spilled onto the road and pedestrians apparently rushed to collect the tanker's gas, a precious commodity as Haiti grapples with a severe fuel shortage caused by the tightening grip of criminal gangs on the capital Port-au-Prince.

Justinien University Hospital which is nearby the incident was overwhelmed with patients as the injured were transported to the facility. "The people are burned on more than 60 percent of their body," A doctor at the hospital said. Prime Minister Henry promised field hospitals would be rapidly deployed to help care for the blast victims. Henry who has led the country since July after president Jovenel Moise was assassinated in a still-mysterious plot -- declared a period of national mourning following the explosion.

Haiti has never produced enough electricity to meet the needs of its population. Even in well-off parts of the capital, the state-run Haiti electric utility only provides, at most, a few hours of power a day. Those who can afford it rely on pricey generators, which are no help in the face of the fuel shortage caused by gangs blocking access to the country's oil terminals in the capital and its outskirts.

In recent months, more than a dozen vehicles transporting fuel have been attacked by gangs demanding ransoms for the drivers' release.
Demonstrators took the streets as recently as Monday protesting the rise in gasoline prices.

The lack of fuel is also hitting water access, in a country where many people rely on private companies to deliver water by truck to at-home systems. And with no guarantee of steady power or water supply, health care providers have been forced to drastically cut back their services. Chronically-unstable Haiti was also plunged into a new political crisis with the assassination of president Moise.