Nigeria tanker inferno kills over 100

More than 100 people were killed in south-west Nigeria when a petrol tanker crashed into a queue of stationary cars and burst into flames.

The accident happened on the Ife to Ibadan motorway in Osun State at the weekend.

I have never in my life seen an accident like this

Governor Bisi Akande

Dozens of people were burnt alive - police say 96 bodies have been retrieved but the final death toll could be much higher.

Osun state police are denying claims that they were responsible for the accident.

Press reports quote local people as saying the cars had been queuing at a roadblock erected by police on the road to demand money from motorists.

The Osun State police commissioner, Ganiyu Dawoudu, denied the reports.

Attack on police

He told the BBC that none of his men had been on duty in the area and said the traffic queue was caused by roadworks.

A police team which tried to visit the scene on Sunday was attacked by a crowd and forced to run away.

Their vehicle was set on fire by an angry mob and completely destroyed.

The accident, which involved more than 10 vehicles, happened on Saturday in heavy traffic.

Visiting the scene of the explosion on Monday, Osun Governor Bisi Akande said: "I have never in my life seen an accident like this".

A police spokesman said the tanker exploded shortly after discharging petrol on to the road.

He said many people were seriously injured in the fire and had been taken to nearby hospitals.

Nigeria's Vanguard newspaper reported that hundreds of onlookers wept profusely at the sight of charred bodies littering the road.

Dangers of driving

This is the fourth high-casualty road accident in Nigeria in the space of three months.

In October, 50 people were killed when a bus ran into a fuel tanker in south-east Nigeria.

In August, riots followed an accident in which up to 70 people were killed when a lorry crushed three buses after its brakes failed and it rolled backwards into a crowded bus station.

The vehicles immediately burst into flames.

A few days earlier, a fuel tanker had smashed into a market in south-west Nigeria, killing more than 20 people.

The high death toll on Nigerian roads is usually blamed on the poor maintenance of vehicles, the bad state of the roads, overloading of vehicles and dangerous driving.