President of Equatorial Guinea Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo arrives at EU-Africa Summit at the EU headquarters in Brussels, capital of Belgium, April 2, 2014. (Xinhua/Gong Bing)

At least 20 people were killed and hundreds injured Sunday after four accidental explosions ripped through a military camp in Equatorial Guinea and obliterated neighboring residential areas.

Footage broadcast by the TVGE channel showed buildings burned and flattened in a wide radius around the Nkoa Ntoma camp in the economic capital Bata, with a thick plume of black smoke rising into the sky.

Children and adults were seen being pulled from the rubble. There were chaotic scenes at the hospital in Bata, with the wounded lying on the floor awaiting treatment.

The health ministry warned in a tweet that many residents could still be buried under the wreckage. 

President Teodoro Obiang Nguema said the accident had occurred after local farmers allowed a fire in the area to burn out of control, setting alight explosives that had been badly stored by soldiers at the military camp. 

"The city of Bata has been the victim of an accident caused by the negligence of the unit in charge of storing explosives, dynamite and ammunition at the Nkoa Ntoma military camp," Obiang Nguema said.

"These caught fire due to stubble-burning by farmers in their fields which ultimately made these depots explode in succession."

The defense ministry put the death toll at at least 20, with some 600 people injured. 

The "high caliber" explosives set off by the fire caused "shockwaves" which razed many houses to the ground, the ministry added.

AFP