Nigeria pile-up kills scores

A four-vehicle pile-up on a road south of the Nigerian capital, Abuja, has left at least 70 people dead.

Three buses and a lorry crashed into each other on the road from Abuja to the city of Lokoja on Sunday night, creating a blaze which left bodies badly charred at the scene.

Nigerian radio said up to 100 people may have died as the authorities appealed for relatives to come to morgues in a bid to identify victims.

The country's busy roads are notoriously dangerous and only on Saturday another crash claimed 23 lives in the north.

The exact circumstances of the Abuja-Lokoja crash, which came just after midnight, are as yet unclear but the authorities said all three buses involved were long-distance services.

Television pictures showed charred bodies and wounded survivors being removed from the wreckage.

Any families with relatives known to be travelling in the area were asked to come to the morgues as plans were made for a mass burial on Tuesday of unclaimed bodies.

In Saturday's crash, a bus spun out of control after being hit by a wheel which came loose from a delivery lorry outside the city of Bauchi.

All but one of the 24 people aboard the bus perished, officials in the city told AFP news agency.

Police blame the high death rates in crashes because of speeding, the poor training of drivers and the poor maintenance of vehicles and roads.