The United States led international pledges of emergency aid to Congo after huge blasts at an arms depot in Brazzaville killed more than 150 people and left 1,000 injured.
President Denis Sassou Nguesso announced a curfew in the capital and cordoned off the area around the devastated eastern district of Mpila, as Congo issued a plea for international help on Monday.
The government said an electrical short-circuit likely caused a fire which triggered a series of blasts so powerful they destroyed scores of houses and even blew out windows in Kinshasa, the capital of the neighbouring Democratic Republic of Congo situated across the Congo river.
Soldiers combing the wreckage of homes in Mpila recovered more bodies Monday, the toll will rise further in the densely populated area.
"We have more than 150 people dead, which is a provisional figure. We have more than 1,000 injured," Interior Minister Raymond Mboulou told.
The minister described the scenes of devastation in the streets surrounding the military barracks as "a tsunami without water". (AFP)