Hundreds dead in Nigeria oil fire

The Red Cross issued a statement on Tuesday saying that at least 200 people were confirmed dead in the fire at the Abule Egba area of the city, but a senior Red Cross official said the toll could rise dramatically.

"It is a densely populated area. We are talking hundreds [dead]. Sixty have been evacuated to hospital, badly burned. We are yet to confirm the death toll so we don't know if it is 300, 400 or 500," said Abiodun Orebiyi, the Red Cross secretary-general.

A photographer working for Reuters news agency said he counted about 500 corpses, many burnt beyond recognition.

Speaking to Al Jazeera, Stella Din, a journalist at the scene, said that local officials and Red Cross workers were preparing a mass burial site to accommodate more than 1,000 bodies.

"Residents woke up this morning to a massive inferno and saw hundreds of bodies," she said.

Pipeline fractured

Witnesses said that unidentified people had tapped the pipeline for fuel, transferring it into several tanker trucks.

They said the explosion occurred afterwards as local residents crowded in to take petrol for themselves.

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