Nigeria petrol tanker explosion kills more than 140 people

More than 140 people, including children, were killed and dozens were injured in Nigeria after an overturned petrol tanker truck exploded in flames while they were trying to scoop up fuel pouring from the vehicle, emergency services said on Wednesday.

The accident occurred at midnight in Jigawa state’s Majiya town when the tanker driver lost control of the vehicle while travelling on a highway, police spokesperson Lawan Adam said. Residents rushed to the scene and were scooping up fuel, “sparking a massive inferno”, he said.

“Close to 140 people were put in a mass grave apart from people buried in other places,” Nura Abdullahi, head of the National Emergency Management Agency in the region, told The Associated Press.

Residents of Majiya were in mourning on Wednesday as they held a mass burial for the victims. Most of the bodies were unrecognisable, emergency services said.

Deadly tanker accidents are common in Nigeria, Africa’s most populous country, where traffic regulations are not strictly enforced in many places and there is a lack of an efficient railway system to transport cargo.

It is also common for people to salvage fuel with cups and buckets to take home after such accidents. The practice has become more common because of soaring fuel prices, which have tripled since the start of last year as the government ended costly gas subsidies.

The driver involved in the accident had travelled about 110km (68 miles) from neighbouring Kano state, police said.