Death toll from Sudan ammo dump up to 37

JUBA, Sudan, Feb 25 (Reuters) – The death toll from an explosion at an ammunition dump in south Sudan has risen to 37, hospital sources said on Friday.

A young boy walks through the burned wreckage of stalls and shops in a custom market in the southern Sudan town of Juba, February 24, 2005. (Reuters).

The teaching hospital in the southern town of Juba has taken in 25 bodies, including two on Friday morning, and the military teaching hospital has 12 bodies from the accident, which took place near a market on Wednesday, they said.

Seven of the bodies at the civilian hospital have not been identified, a senior hospital official said.

Government officials have said 75 people were injured and 1,600 people lost their homes when rockets, mortar bombs and artillery shells rained down on parts of the town, the largest in southern Sudan.

The officials blamed the disaster on an apparently accidental fire that started near the ammunition dump.

The explosions devastated the area around the market and flying ordnance killed people up to two km away.