Libyan firefighters battled a major blaze at the country's second-largest oil refinery Tuesday after a drone strike ignited a gasoline storage tank at the Zawiya facility west of Tripoli, according to the company operating the site.
On Monday night, a large gasoline reservoir in Zawiya caught fire and collapsed after it was "struck by a drone while another drone fell near a second tank without causing casualties", Hamdi al-Bishti, head of the Brega Oil Company which runs the refinery, told AFP.
Firefighting efforts and the cooling of adjacent tanks to prevent the fire from spreading were underway since the night of the strike.
Bishti said it was difficult to fully contain the fire given the tank was filled with gasoline.
The National Oil Corporation (NOC) said the tank contained about 4.5 million liters of gasoline and declared a state of emergency Monday night.
