( AFP ) - About 40 people have died in a fire at an oil pipeline after it was vandalised by looters in the southern Nigerian state of Lagos, a police spokesman said Wednesday.
Thirty-four bodies had been recovered from the site of Tuesday's explosion, said Lagos state police spokesman Frank Mba.
The tragedy occurred when a group of people vandalised a pipeline belonging to the state oil firm NNPC at an area south of Lagos, Nigeria's bustling seaside economic capital.
The Punch newspaper said most of the victims were women and children.
Oil explosions are rampant in Nigeria, Africa's biggest producer of crude with a daily output of 2.6 million barrels, due to activities of vandals, pirates and oil thieves who damage oil pipelines to siphon off petrol and sell it in the black market.
Hundreds of people have died scooping petrol from burst pipelines in recent months in the west African country.