LAGOS: A petrol tanker truck exploded after flipping over in central Nigeria on Saturday, killing 70 people who had gathered to take the spilt fuel, the national road safety authority said. “The death toll stands at 70 so far,” Kumar Tsukwam, the head of the Federal Road Safety Corps (FRSC) in Niger State, told AFP by telephone. Tsukwam said a truck carrying 60,000 litres of gasoline had an accident Saturday around 10:00 am (0900 GMT) at the Dikko junction on the road linking the federal capital Abuja to the northern city of Kaduna.
“Most of the victims were burnt beyond recognition,” Tsukwam said. “We are at the scene to clear things up.”
The price of gasoline has increased fivefold in 18 months in Nigeria in the midst of a serious economic crisis, leading many to risk their lives to recover fuel during road accidents. Niger State Governor Umaru Bago said in a statement that the explosion was “worrisome, heartbreaking and unfortunate”. He said an undisclosed number of people also experienced various degrees of burns.
In October, more than 170 people died in a similar incident in Jigawa State, in the north of Africa’s most populous country.
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