ABUJA, July 3 (NNN-AFRICANEWS) — At least 50 people were killed in Nigeria when fuel from a crashed truck that they were siphoning up caught fire, a spokesman for the governor in central Benue state said.
“A tanker loaded with fuel fell Monday and people were scooping its products when it caught fire, killing over 50 persons,” the spokesman said.
Others were badly injured and taken to hospital.
The driver of the tanker had lost control of the vehicle after trying to dodge a pothole, eyewitnesses say. The truck overturned close to shops as it was travelling through the village of Ahumbe in Benue state on Monday.
It reportedly caught fire after an exhaust pipe from a passing bus scraped on the ground, causing sparks to fly.
“We have recovered 45 corpses of the dead while 101 others sustained serious burns,” Aliyu Baba, the federal road safety commission sector commander for Benue state, said.
“From the look of things and considering their condition, many of them might not survive,” he said.
People had gathered around the crashed tanker after the crash, with some attempting to salvage fuel, witnesses say.
Despite warnings from security personnel to stay away from the vehicle, many were caught up in the subsequent explosion.
Similar incidents are relatively common in Nigeria, a country where many people live in poverty despite the country’s multi-billion-dollar oil and gas industry.
Fires and explosions often occur due to badly maintained roads or because people attempt to siphon off fuel from tankers and pipelines.
In January, at least eight people were killed in Odukpani, in the southeastern state of Cross River, when an overturned tanker exploded while people were scooping up its leaking fuel.
That incident came after 60 people were killed last October when a spill at an oil pipeline in the country’s southeast caught fire. — NNN-AFRICANEWS