AT LEAST 75 people have died after a petrol tanker overturned and exploded in northern Haiti, unleashing a fireball that swept through homes and small businesses, authorities revealed today.

The blast occurred shortly after midnight in Cap-Haitien, Haiti’s second-largest city, along the northern coast.

Buildings and overturned vehicles were still smoking hours later as firefighters covered the burned bodies of the young victims in white sheets and loaded them onto the back of a tipper lorry.

With fuel in short supply across Haiti, some people saw the crash of a tanker truck as a chance to scoop up valuable spilt petrol but were killed in the explosion.

Early reports indicate that the tanker was trying to avoid an oncoming motorcycle.

Burn victims were taken to Justinian University Hospital, which is facing a shortage of medical supplies and health workers as the nation has been bombarded by disasters in recent months — including a powerful earthquake that killed more than 2,200 people.

Nursing student Bruna Lourdes, whose survivor brother Riche Joseph stepped out of the house late at night to look for something to eat, said that she planned to spend the night by her brother’s side and offer whatever assistance she can to the overstretched medical staff.

Prime Minister Ariel Henry, who is a doctor, visited the victims wearing a biohazard suit.

He was reported to be consoling a man who had collapsed on the hospital floor because there were not enough beds.

Mr Henry has promised more help in the form of field hospitals and a contingent of medical professionals.