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Up to 50 people feared killed in fuel pipeline explosion and fire in Nigeria


LAGOS, Nigeria (AP) - An oil pipeline exploded near Nigeria's largest city as thieves tried to siphon oil from it, with up to 50 people perishing in the flames, police said Friday.

"People were stealing fuel from the pipeline when it caught fire and exploded," police spokesman Emmanuel Ighodalo said of the blast Thursday in Amore, a village across a wide lagoon from Lagos, a city of 13 million people.

At least 30 charred bodies of victims have been recovered and more still littered the swamps and waterways surrounding the site of the explosion, making it likely the death toll could reach 50, said Ighodalo.

Giant tongues of flame coming from the pipeline scorched the nearby vegetation while large plumes of smoke billowed skywards at the scene Friday.

Eight bodies, some burned beyond recognition, still lay at the scene, not yet collected by recovery workers.

The pipeline, run by state-owned Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, pumps imported fuel from the Lagos sea port to western Nigeria.

Company officials said the pipeline pumps had been turned off to help firefighters, increasing the likelihood of fuel scarcity in parts of Nigeria.

"Our priority is to put out the fire so we can fix the pipeline," an official overseeing a team of firefighters at the site said, speaking on condition of anonymity.

The closed pipeline wasn't expected to affect the amount of petroleum sent from Nigeria, Africa's largest exporter of crude and a member of OPEC.

Amore residents, including some survivors who escaped the explosion with injuries, fled fearing police arrest, said Ighodalo.

Armed police and navy troops kept watch over the village, emptied of its estimated 1,000 inhabitants.

One area resident, Tony Nwanma, quoted some survivors as saying a power generator used by the thieves to pump gasoline from the pipeline had caught fire, causing the explosion.

In the past, similar explosions occurred when villagers unwittingly ignited highly combustible petroleum as they collected it from ruptured pipelines. A 1998 pipeline blast killed over 1,000 in southern Nigeria.

Stealing valuable oil from pipelines is common in Nigeria, where most inhabitants are deeply impoverished despite Nigeria's oil riches.

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