The Director-General of the Niger State Emergency Management Agency, in northern Nigeria, Mr. Abdullahi Baba-Arab, has confirmed that 48 persons were burnt beyond recognition in the petrol tanker explosion on Sunday in the Agaie Local Government Area of Niger State in northern Nigeria.
According to local media reports, the accident occurred in the early hours of Sunday when the petrol tanker had a head-on collision with a truck loaded with travellers and cattle from Wudil in Kano State.
Giving an update on the accident, Me. Baba-Arab, said that the victims were given mass burial in the local government because they were burnt beyond recognition.
He said in a statement that over 50 cattle were burnt, and a crane truck and a pickup van were caught up in the inferno.
According to the statement, the truck, loaded with travellers and cattle from Wudil in Kano State was heading to Lagos and that the agency’s “Rapid Respond Team, in conjunction with the LGEMCs are still at the scene of the incident conducting a search and rescue operation as more corpses are still trapped inside the trucks”.
GIK/APA