a tanker truck explodes and kills more than 140 people

A crowd gathered around the overturned vehicle to collect fuel.

A scene of horror. More than 140 people died in northern Nigeria after the explosion of an overturned tanker truck around which a crowd had gathered to collect fuel, according to a latest report given Wednesday October 16 by emergency services. Witnesses described to AFP a “horror scene”recounting having heard a “huge detonation” then saw “people on fire” Who “ran and screamed”.

Tuesday evening, the truck carrying gasoline swerved to avoid colliding with another truck in the locality of Majiya (Jigawa State), about a hundred kilometers northeast of Kano, the main city in the north of the country. After the accident, residents flocked around the vehicle to collect the fuel that had spilled onto the road and shoulders.

The police who tried to stop them were pushed back by the crowd, explained Lawan Shiisu Adam, a police spokesperson. It was then that the explosion took place, he added, without specifying the exact cause.