70 killed in fuel tanker crash

Up to 70 people have been killed in Nigeria, many of them burnt alive, when a fuel tanker crashed into a busy bus station in the southeastern city of Onitsha and exploded, Red Cross officials say.

Dozens of others were injured in the incident, in which 13 other vehicles were also incinerated, on Sunday (local time).

"Most people were burned beyond recognition," Emeka Kachi, vice-president of the local Red Cross, said.

"We are transferring the corpses to a teaching hospital for DNA testing so that their relatives can identify them for a proper burial."

A police spokesman said the tanker had been speeding before veering out of control. He put the death toll at 23, with seven injured.

Muhammadu Buhari, sworn in as Nigerian president on Friday, offered his sympathies to victims and relatives.

The accident came five days after the end of a strike by fuel marketers, who had halted distribution as part of a pay dispute with the outgoing government.

While Nigeria is Africa's biggest crude oil producer, the neglected state of its refineries leaves it almost wholly reliant on imports for the 40 million litres of gasoline it consumes each day.

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