Exploding oil pipes in Nigeria killed 260 people

Yesterday, an oil pipeline exploded and caught fire in Lagos, Nigeria's largest financial center. According to initial statistics, 260 people died and 60 were injured, but the actual number of casualties is expected to be much higher.

The explosion occurred in the area of ​​Abule Egba just in time when hundreds of stinking people spilled from the holes of the pipe damaged by professional thieves. In the past decade, about 2,000 Nigerians have died because of the same situation.

Nigerian Red Cross officials (NRC) said they have so far counted 260 bodies of the dead and all burned black. Finding more dead people is difficult because the heat from the oil fire is too big.

Efforts to extinguish the fire in Lagos.(Photo: AFP)

A NRC member, Ige Oladimeji, described: "We can only identify them through the skull, and the body is burnt black and lies on the ground." A witness was a Reuters reporter who confirmed that he counted about 500 corpses.

According to NRC Secretary General Abiodum Orebiyi, many houses in the area were destroyed after the tragedy along with a mosque and a Christian church. He confirmed that the fire was completely controlled.

The newly burnt oil pipeline is located in a densely populated area and adjacent to a highway. The hospitals near the scene were all crowded with burn victims. Meanwhile, many people did not dare to go to the hospital because they could not afford treatment.

Black smoke is still rising hours after the pipeline explosion in Nigeria.(Photo: AFP)

Nigeria is Africa's largest oil-producing country, but it still regularly faces fuel shortages due to rampant corruption, weak management and seriously degraded infrastructure. Pipelines often run through poor neighborhoods and vandalism to steal common oil.

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