Nigeria's deadly oil infernos
2012-07-12 22:00
Lagos - More than 100 people who went to scoop up oil from an overturned oil tanker in Nigeria were burned to death on Thursday after the vehicle caught fire.
Fuel leaks and oil tanker accidents in Nigeria often draw huge crowds scrambling to scoop fuel, resulting in many deaths due to accidental fires.
Below are the biggest oil accidents in the west African country:
17 October 1998:
More than 1 000 people die at Jesse, in the southeastern state of Delta, when a pipeline explodes as people try to steal fuel.
20 March 2000:
About 50 people are killed when a fuel pipeline explodes in Abia state in southeast Nigeria, as people are scavenging for fuel from the burst pipeline when it erupts into flames.
10 July 2000:
Nearly 300 people die at Warri, Delta state, in a fire caused by a pipeline explosion as they siphoned off fuel.
30 November 2000:
Around 60 Nigerians die when an explosion rips through a fractured pipeline outside Lagos as hundreds illegally siphoned off fuel.
19 June 2003:
125 people are killed by a pipeline explosion in the village of Ovim in Abia state, where they were trying to collect petrol.
16 September 2004:
Nearly 60 are killed when a pipeline explodes on the outskirts of Lagos.
12 May 2006:
Between 150 and 200 die in a pipeline inferno at a beach near Lagos.
26 Dec 2006:
At least 280 die in a blast at a pipeline as people steal petrol in the Abule Egba district of northern Lagos.
26 March 2007:
At least 93 are killed when an upturned oil tanker bursts into flames as it was being looted in Kaduna State in northern Nigeria.
15 May 2008:
An oil pipeline blast on the outskirts of Lagos kill at least 15 according to the authorities and 100 according to the Red Cross, after an excavator at a road construction site accidentally bursts the pipeline.
9 October 2009:
Up to 80 people are burned alive in the southern state of Anambra when a fuel tanker truck explodes.
2 April 2011:
A fuel tanker overturns at an army checkpoint in the central state of Plateau, sparking an inferno in which about 50 people are killed.
12 July 2012:
More than 100 people who rushed to scoop up fuel after a Nigerian petrol tanker tipped over are killed when the vehicle and pools of spilled oil catch fire.
