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Niger delta petrol tanker crash kills 92 95 dead in Nigerian fuel truck fire
(about 7 hours later)
At least 92 people have been killed after a petrol tanker crashed and caught fire in the Niger delta as people tried to scoop up fuel, according to reports. A truck carrying fuel caught fire and exploded in Nigeria on Thursday after it veered off the road into a ditch, killing at least 95 people who had rushed to the scene to scoop fuel that had spilled, an official said.
"Early this morning a tanker loaded with petrol fell on the East-West road in Okogbe, and people trooped to the scene, obviously to scoop the spilled fuel, and suddenly there was fire resulting in casualties," a Rivers State police spokesman, Ben Ugwuegbulam, said. At least 50 others were injured in the incident in the oil-rich southern Niger delta region, said Rivers state spokeswoman Ibim Semenitari.
He added that it was too early to give a precise casualty figure, but a Reuters witness at the scene counted 92 dead bodies of men, women and children. The fuel tanker was trying to avoid a head-on collision with buses when it swerved into a ditch at about 7am on Thursday, said state police spokesman Ben Ugwuegbulam. It then overturned in the bushes, leaving its fuel to spill.
Hundreds of people crowded around as soldiers and emergency workers lifted the dead and wounded into ambulances and police trucks. People then swarmed to the scene to collect fuel.
Crashes are common on Nigeria's pot-holed roads. Most people live in the country on less than £1.50 a day, making the chance to collect spilling petrol a temptation, despite the risk of fires. Yushau Shuaib, a spokesman for Nigeria's emergency management agency, said the 95 people were killed in the explosion that ensued.
The East-West road, which runs across the oil-producing region, has been scheduled for development for almost a decade and money is allocated for it in the budget each year. Despite decades as an oil-producing region, the majority of those living in the delta remain desperately poor and mostly without access to proper medical care, education or work. Anger over the situation on several occasions has driven young people to attack foreign oil firms based there and steal fuel from pipelines.
Nigeria is Africa's biggest oil producer. The truck accident took place near Okogbe town. The cause was not immediately known, although fatal crashes are common in Nigeria where decades-old roads are normally pitted with potholes. Corruption often hinders or slows down road maintenance projects.
A photographer who was at the scene said the accident occurred on a major road that was being expanded. Construction workers, however, had not yet reached the level where the accident occurred, which remained a single carriageway, forcing vehicles coming from opposite directions to negotiate passage.
"This tells a tragic story about the state of national infrastructure and the poverty of the people," said environmental activist Nnimmo Bassey.