Fuel explosion kills 70 as crowd 'scooped fuel' from overturned tanker At least 70 people have died after a petrol tanker exploded in north-central Nigeria, the country's emergency forces have said.
In September, an explosion killed at least 48 people in Niger state after a fuel tanker collided with another truck carrying cattle.
The blast took place in the early hours of Saturday morning after a group of people attempted to move fuel from one tanker into another using a generator.
"[A] large crowd of people gathered to scoop fuel despite concerted efforts to stop them," Tsukwam said in an earlier statement.
Kumar Tsukwam, from the Federal Road Safety Corps (FRSC), said most of the victims were local residents who had stopped to scoop up the spilled petrol after the truck overturned.
