Nigerian gas explosion as people queued at the...

Up to 100 people killed after Nigerian gas plant exploded in ‘huge inferno’ as people queued for fuel on Christmas Eve

The fireball destroyed nearby buildings and left burned corpses littering the plant in Nnewi, according to witnesses.

The blaze, which stated at 11am local time on Thursday, consumed victims who had been waiting in line to collect crude oil from the Inter Corp Oil Limited gas plant – a subsidiary of Nigerian conglomerate Chicason Group.

A witness, Emeka Peters, said the fire broke out when a tanker truck that had finished discharging fresh gas at the plant left without waiting to observe the prescribed cooling time.

‘The fire exploded like a bomb, and the whole gas station went up in thick, black smoke amidst an explosion from cooking gas cylinders,’ he said.

‘Many people were killed, and most of them were those that had been in the station queuing all day to get their cylinders refilled.’
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