Many feared dead from pipeline fire

Up to 250 people may have died following a pipeline explosion near Warri in the oil-producing Niger Delta region of southeastern Nigeria, media sources in Lagos told IRIN on Tuesday. The police were reported to have sealed off the area and firefighters were still trying on Tuesday to control the blaze, believed to have started on Sunday night. Villagers were collecting petrol in buckets from the vandalised pipeline when the explosion took place. There has been no official confirmation of casualty figures but local journalists said they had counted 120 charred bodies in the area, according to the BBC. Other local sources put the figure as high as 250 and there are fears that even more may have died. Fuel shortages in Nigeria have led to a thriving black market and villagers in the neglected southern region often risk their lives to collect fuel from vandalised pipelines so as to sell it.