LAGOS (AFP) - The death toll from an explosion at a fuel pipeline on the outskirts of the Nigerian city of Lagos has risen to around 60 as more bodies were recovered from the scene.
"We have recovered more bodies and they are now in the mortuaries. I think up to 10 more bodies were recovered on Friday," Lagos police spokesman Emmanuel Ighodalo told AFP on Saturday.
Ighodalo had said between 30 and 50 people were killed in the explosion, which occurred as locals tried to steal petrol from a vandalised pipeline at Imore village, a northern suburb of Lagos, on Thursday.
He said a combined team of police, navy and local fishermen were still combing the scene for more bodies of the victims, the latest petrol blast in the oil rich west African country.
In October 1998, over 1,000 villagers of Jesse in Delta State were burnt beyond recognition while scooping fuel from a damaged pipeline.
Similar incidents have been recorded in several other parts of the country since then.
Hundreds of fuel and oil thieves have been arrested or interrogated in the past four years as the government launched a crackdown on them.