Lagos, Oct 16 (EFE).- An explosion from an overturned gasoline tanker in northern Nigeria killed 147 people, including several children, who were trying to scoop up spilled fuel, officials said Wednesday, warning that the death toll would rise.
According to local authorities, the vehicle crashed late Tuesday night after the driver lost control on the Kano-Hadejia expressway near the town of Majiya in Jigawa state.
A spokesman for the National Emergency Management Agency, Nura Abdullahi, said more than 140 of the dead had already been buried in a mass funeral and warned that the toll was likely to rise. About 100 other people injured in the blast were taken to hospitals.
Jigawa police spokesman Lawal Shiisu Adam told local media on Wednesday that the tanker’s contents flooded the town’s sewers and drains, and although police tried to prevent people from approaching, residents used cups and buckets to scoop up the gasoline, which caught fire.
Neighbors then used tree branches to shield the victims from onlookers who approached the scene while emergency services arrived.
Nigeria’s President Bola Tinubu expressed “his deepest condolences to the families of the victims of this devastating incident,” his Special Adviser on Information and Strategy, Bayo Onanuga, said in a statement.
Tinubu added that the Federal Government was “committed to the swift and comprehensive review of fuel transportation safety protocols across the country.”
Accidents involving fuel tankers are relatively common in Nigeria, one of Africa’s major oil powers.
On Sep. 8, a fuel tanker exploded on a major highway in Niger state, in the north-central part of the country, killing at least 59 people. EFE
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