Benin tanker explosion kills 54

Sixteen more people have died from their injuries in northern Benin after a petrol tanker caught fire on Thursday, officials say.

Interior Minister Edgard Allia said that 54 people had now died.

The explosion happened while people were siphoning fuel from the tanker, which had broken down, witnesses said.

"We spent the whole night recovering charred cadavers," a hospital official told the AFP news agency from the town of Tanguieta.

The explosion happened at Porga, near the Burkina Faso border.

A police officer told AFP villagers approached the tanker under cover of night and accidentally set it alight with a lantern.

One doctor said the death toll was sure to rise and that hospital facilities were stretched to the limit.

Florent Priili, at the St Jean de Dieu hospital, said: "We are overwhelmed. It is going to get worse. There are now more than 15 people for whom there is no hope."

President Yayi Boni has sent a high-level delegation to the scene, officials said.