9 dead in Nigeria gas explosion

Lafia, Sept. 11: Nine people were killed and dozens more injured, some of them critically, in an explosion and fire at a gas filling station in central Nigeria, the state governor said Tuesday.

The accident happened Monday in Lafia, the capital of Nasarawa state, 190 kilometres ( 120 miles) by road east of Abuja.

“At the moment, we have recorded nine deaths as against the large figures being speculated in the media,” Nasarawa Governor Tanko Almakura told reporters at the scene. Of the injured the worst affected had been taken to Abuja for treatment for severe burns, he added. Conflicting tolls of dead and injured are not unusual in Nigeria and getting corroboration of figures is often problematic. President Muhammadu Buhari’s office had earlier said several people were killed, without specifying numbers, while a senior road safety official said three died.” Two people were killed on the spot while one person later died in the hospital,” said the member with the Federal Road Safety Corps ( FRSC).

Thirty- two people were taken to hospital “with many of them in critical condition with severe burns”, he said on condition of anonymity as he was not authorised to speak to the media.

Many vehicles and some nearby houses were gutted in the inferno. Firefighters alerted to the initial leak have said they were unable to prevent the blast, which witnesses said was the first of its kind in the city. Households in Nigeria and wider West Africa rely on bottled gas for cooking.