Truck carrying individuals and cattle crashes head-on with tanker in Agaie space within the north-central Niger state.
A gas tanker has collided with one other truck in Nigeria, inflicting an explosion that killed at the least 48 individuals, in response to the nation’s emergency response company.
The gas tanker was additionally carrying cattle within the Agaie space in north-central Niger state and at the least 50 of them have been burned alive, Abdullahi Baba-Arab, director-general of the Niger State Emergency Administration Company, mentioned on Sunday.
Search-and-rescue operations have been underneath approach on the scene of the accident, he mentioned.
Baba-Arab mentioned initially that 30 our bodies have been discovered. However in a later assertion, he mentioned there have been an extra 18 our bodies of victims who have been burned to demise within the collision. He mentioned the useless had been given a mass burial.
It was initially unclear what number of others have been injured.
Mohammed Bago, governor of Niger state, mentioned residents of the affected space ought to stay calm and requested street customers to “at all times be cautious and abide by street site visitors laws to safeguard lives and property”.
With the absence of an environment friendly railway system to move cargo, deadly truck accidents are frequent alongside many of the main roads in Nigeria – Africa’s most populous nation, with greater than 220 million residents.
In accordance with consultants, the primary causes are reckless driving, poor street situations and poorly maintained autos.
In 2020 alone, there have been 1,531 petrol tanker crashes leading to 535 fatalities and 1,142 accidents, in response to Nigeria’s Federal Street Security Corps.
The Nigerian Nationwide Petroleum Firm (NNPC) Ltd final week hiked the worth of petrol by at the least 39 p.c, the second main enhance in additional than a 12 months. However shortages have continued, forcing motorists to queue for hours within the nation’s main cities and cities.