Videos and photographs posted on social media showed giant flames and a nuclear-like mushroom cloud rising at the fatefully-named Atomic Junction near the University of Accra.

“Unfortunately, there are some fatalities and we are working to have the numbers,” Ghana's deputy information minister, Kojo Oppong Nkrumah, told a local radio station, adding that "quite a number" of people were injured in the explosion.

At least six fire trucks and several ambulances responded to the blast, Reuters reports. According to the deputy minister, the initial blaze is now largely under control.

The initial explosion took place at about 7:30pm local time at a gas station owned by Ghana Oil Company Ltd, and then spread to a Total petrol station across the street.