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Deadly fire strikes Nigeria
30/08/2007 11:33 - (SA)
Port Harcourt - Several people were burned to death after fuel tanker trucks caught fire in the southern Nigerian city of Port Harcourt, said police.
The reasons for the blaze, which took place late on Wednesday on a road, where dozens of fuel tankers parked overnight, were not known.
The local police chief said he had received reports that people who were sleeping under some of the tankers or in nearby shacks had been burned to death, but he did not have a figure.
A private security contractor said two people, a boy and a man, had been killed and the fire started accidentally while people were siphoning fuel out of a tanker. Police could not confirm these details.
One community source said a Coca-Cola bottling plant nearby was also damaged, but this could not be immediately confirmed.
Port Harcourt, in the Niger Delta, was the hub of Nigeria's oil industry, the eighth biggest in the world. The city was under a night curfew after street gun battles involving rival gangs and troops killed dozens of people earlier this month.
Fuel tanker fires were common in Nigeria. Some took place because of leaks from poorly maintained vehicles while others happened after tankers had accidents and people took the opportunity to try and collect fuel.
More than 70 people died in March in the northern state of Kaduna after a tanker that had crashed onto its side caught fire while villagers were scooping up fuel spilling out of it.
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