Nigeria oil blast kills scores

A 1998 pipeline blaze in Jesse, Nigeria, killed at least 1,000

An explosion on an oil pipeline in south-east Nigeria has killed at least 105 villagers in the worst accident of its kind in nearly three years.

Emergency crews are treating dozens for severe burns and the death toll is likely to rise significantly, the Red Cross says.

Villagers were reportedly siphoning oil from the ruptured pipeline when the explosion was ignited by a spark from a passing motorcycle in the village of Amaokwe Oghughe, about 50 km (35 miles) north of the Abia State capital, Umuahia.

News of Thursday's disaster only broke when the injured began arriving in Umuahia at the end of the week - so rescue crews did not arrive until three days after the event, the BBC's Dan Isaacs in Nigeria says.

"Whole families were wiped out," the local head of the Red Cross, Emmanuel Ijewere, said.

"We fear many more will die as there are many people with first-degree burns in local hospitals and private homes."

The hospital in Umuahia is said to be overwhelmed by casualties whilst many of the bodies at the scene are burnt beyond recognition.

Police have sealed off the scene in Amaokwe Oghughe where the fire is reportedly still burning.

'Scooping'

The pipeline appears to have been deliberately ruptured by looters up to six weeks before the blast.

It was carrying fuel from a state-owned refinery in the oil city of Port Harcourt to the city of Enugu, 230 kilometres (140 miles) to the north.

Village elders say they reported the leak to the authorities but nothing had been done about it.

Our correspondent says the National Petroleum Corportation, which is responsible for maintaining the line, will face tough questions about why the leak was not repaired before it led to the tragedy.

Ndu Ughamadu, a state spokesman for the oil company, told AP news agency that officials first became aware of the leakage after the explosion on Thursday night.

But he said company policy was to continue pumping fuel during "minor leakages".

"We have more than 5,000 kilometers (3,200 miles) of pipeline to monitor. At the same time we have a serious fuel scarcity in this country," Mr Ughamadu said.

In the absence of repairs, locals had been collecting the petrol in whatever containers they could find, with the police doing little to stop them.

Pipeline looting, known as "bunkering" or "scooping", is common in Nigeria despite the risk of fire or prosecution with security forces known to shoot looters on sight.

This is a tragedy of a type that has become all too familiar in Nigeria, our correspondent says.

Pipelines carrying valuable fuel products and running through desperately poor villages provide an immense temptation to the local population.

Over the past few years hundreds of people have died whilst collecting fuel in this way.

More than 1,000 people died in a single incident in 1998, Jesse, when a pipeline exploded in the southeastern state of Delta.

Fuel hike

Although Nigeria ranks as one of the world's leading oil exporters, smuggling of fuel for export has created widespread petrol shortages.

The pump price of petrol was raised by nearly 54% on Friday.

The government thought it had ended fuel queues

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Union leaders and campaign groups vowed to oppose the increase which, they say, hurts the living standards of ordinary people.

President Olusegun Obasanjo's government argued that it was necessary in order to attract investors to Nigeria's oil sector and end the chronic shortages.

Earlier increases in the price of subsidised fuel have sparked strikes, riots and anti-government protests.

Petrol prices are an especially sensitive issue in Nigeria, because there is growing resentment that oil revenues have done little to help overcome the country's poverty.