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Red Cross: Nigeria pipeline blast kills at least 100

(Agencies)
Updated: 2008-05-16 10:36

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A firefighter puts out a ruptured pipeline fire in Ijegun area of Lagos, Nigeria May 15, 2008. At least 100 people were killed and scores injured when fuel from a pipeline ruptured by a bulldozer caught fire and exploded on Thursday in a village near Nigeria's biggest city of Lagos, the Red Cross said. [Agencies]

Abandoned in panic, discarded school bags and sandals littered the compound of one school whose pupils had fled. A group of women wailed in grief nearby.

A network of oil and fuel pipelines criss-crosses parts of Nigeria and explosions and fires that kill many are frequent.

In the creeks of the Niger Delta, the country's main oil producing zone, the pipelines are also the target of sabotage attacks by local militants seeking greater control over oil revenues and more development for their impoverished region.

Previous accidental pipeline blasts in Nigeria have been caused by vandals who drilled holes in the feeder lines, used to distribute mainly imported fuel, in order to steal petrol for sale on the black market.

Despite the country's oil wealth, most Nigerians live on less than $2 per day and many are prepared to take huge risks to obtain free fuel.

At least 45 people were burnt to death last December in another village on the outskirts of Lagos when fuel they were stealing from a buried pipeline went up in flames.

One year earlier, 250 people were killed in another pipeline fire in a different area of Lagos.

In such situations, a small number of organised thieves usually drill a hole in a pipeline, but as word spreads others come and try to steal the fuel and fire often breaks out.

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