More than 140 people, including children, have been killed and dozens injured after an overturned gasoline tanker truck caught fire in Nigeria, emergency services said on Wednesday.
Police spokesman Lawnon Adam said the accident occurred at midnight in Maziya town in Jigawa state when the tanker driver lost control of the vehicle while traveling on the highway. “Residents arrived at the scene and were collecting fuel, which led to a massive fire,” he said.
“About 140 people were buried in mass graves, in addition to those buried elsewhere,” Noura Abdullahi, head of the National Emergency Management Agency in the region, told The Associated Press.
Residents of Maziya were in mourning on Wednesday as they organized a mass burial for the victims. Emergency services said most of the bodies were unrecognizable.
Fatal tanker accidents are common in Nigeria, Africa’s most populous country, where traffic rules are not strictly enforced in many places and lacks an efficient railway system to transport goods.
It is also common for people to save fuel in cups and buckets to take home after such accidents. The practice has become more common due to rising fuel prices, which have tripled since the beginning of last year as the government ended costly gas subsidies.
Police said the driver involved in the accident had traveled about 110 kilometers (68 miles) from neighboring Kano state.
The Jigawa State Emergency Management Agency initially put the death toll at 105, including those who died while being treated in hospitals.
Most of the other victims were “burned to ashes” at the crash site, said Dr. Haruna Mariga, head of Jigawa emergency services.
“If they had known (about the danger) they would not have gone to get (fuel),” Mariga said.
He said emergency services arrived at the scene several hours after the accident.
Resident Sani Omar told local Channel Television that the fire “spread so quickly that many people could not escape.”
“People were running in all directions screaming for help,” Omar said.
State Police Commissioner Ahmadu Abdullahi said, “This is a heartbreaking moment for all of us.”