Fuel tanker explodes in Nigeria, 48 people killed

Fatal truck accidents are common in Nigeria. Pic/X

A fuel tanker collided head-on with another truck in Nigeria on Sunday causing an explosion that killed at least 48 people, the country's emergency response agency said.

The fuel tanker was also carrying cattle in the Agaie area in north-central Niger state and at least 50 of them were burned alive, Abdullahi Baba-Arab, director-general of the Niger State Emergency Management Agency, said.

Search and rescue operations were underway at the scene of the accident, Baba-Arab said. Baba-Arab said initially that 30 bodies were found but in a later statement said an additional 18 bodies of victims who were burned to death in the collision were found. He said the dead had been given a mass burial.

With the absence of an efficient railway system to transport cargo, fatal truck accidents are common along most of the major roads in Nigeria, Africa's most populous country.

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