Four (4) people have been confirmed dead, with many others still missing, after an explosion at a quarry site at Shama in the Western Region at dawn on Sunday. Several others have been injured.
The explosion occurred at a quarry site called G-Omini Quarry in the Shama District of the Western Region.
Many night shift workers said to be Ghanaian and Chinese nationals have been burned, some beyond recognition.
The injured have been sent to various hospitals, while others are still missing. The explosion occurred at about 00:30 GMT.
It was not immediately clear what caused the blast, which destroyed buildings near the quarry in Shama district and left rubble strewn across swathes of farmland.
The explosives, reportedly kept in an unstructured storage facility without a permit, detonated and killed the workers.
Aside from the fatalities and injuries, it has caused extensive damage to the quarry.
The District Chief Executive for Shama, Ebenezer Dadzie, confirmed the incident and said efforts were underway to rescue those missing and also assess the extent of damage.
He said the District Security Council had yet to put a number on the injured and fatalities.
Sources allege that the company was storing the explosives illegally without the permission of the Minerals Commission, contrary to the law governing the acquisition, storage, and use of explosives.
A source close to the company said the explosion did not occur in the process of blasting but rather in the yet-to-be-used explosives kept in a room that is not a structured storage explosive magazine.
It said the casualties were workers who were on a night shift and were busy going about their routine activities at the time of the explosion.
The police and the Ghana National Fire Service were at the scene to maintain security and facilitate rescue operations.
This incident follows a similar explosion that took place in Appiatse, also within the Western Region, on January 20, 2022. In that case, an explosion occurred after a truck carrying explosives owned by Maxam Limited was involved in an accident, leading to a massive explosion.
