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Children killed in Nigeria blast
"At least 100 people, many of them children, have been killed in an oil pipeline explosion in the Nigerian city of Lagos, the local Red Cross says.
The blast tore through Ijegun suburb, engulfing schools and homes after a bulldozer burst the pipeline.
Officials at the scene said many died after being overcome by smoke; others were killed in a stampede to escape. One rescue worker told the BBC a local tracing centre had been formed to find missing relatives.
"People are looking for family members. Parents are looking for children," he said, as firefighters fought the blaze with sand and water.
Discarded school bags and sandals littered a school whose pupils tried to flee. Witnesses said the ground around the explosion was so hot that shoes melted.
One local resident, injured in the fire, described the blast.
"I was just doing sewing work when I saw everything just got exploded. I just picked up my baby and started running - it was the heat," she told the BBC's Network Africa programme". "At least 100 people, many of them children, have been killed in an oil pipeline explosion in the Nigerian city of Lagos, the loc... more -
100+ dead In Lagos pipeline fire
At least 100 people have been killed by an explosion on an oil pipeline in a northern suburb of Lagos, Nigeria's biggest city, Red Cross officials say.
According to the humanitarian group, the explosion was caused by road construction machinery piercing a pipe carrying refined fuel through a village on the outskirts of Lagos on Thursday.
Sule Maicube, the Red Cross official, told Al Jazeera that the flames from the fire spread through nearby homes and a school.
He said: "At least 20 people have now been taken to hospital."
"The fire occurred in a residential area, and it is still continuing. The [surrounding] buildings are in flames."
The fire has raged for at least seven hours.
Sarah Simpson, a journalist speaking from Port Harcourt in the Niger Delta, said that very little has changed regarding the country's attempts to avoid disasters that can occur around oil pipelines.
She said: "Investment and money has not been put into making these pipelines safer."
Witnesses said local people were trying to help the fire service to put out the blaze, using sand and water.
Pipeline fires are common in Nigeria. More than 400 people died in two pipeline explosions in Lagos in 2006, and at least 40 died in December last year.
Some fires are started when residents attempt to take oil from damaged or sabotaged pipelines. At least 100 people have been killed by an explosion on an oil pipeline in a northern suburb of Lagos, Nigeria's biggest city, Re... more
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