More than 160 people died when an overturned fuel tanker in northern Nigeria exploded. Witnesses and relatives of victims said poverty had driven most to try to collect the spilled gas.

Dozens of people in northern Nigeria were killed in a massive explosion as they tried to scoop up fuel from a crashed tanker truck.

The driver of the tanker lost control of the vehicle, which tipped over in Nigeria’s Jigawa state. As locals rushed to retrieve the fuel, the tank exploded.

Residents of a nearby town went to scoop up gasoline that had spilled from an overturned tanker, but then it exploded, setting off an inferno. Several similar disasters have taken place in recent years.

More than 140 people have been killed and dozens injured as they rushed to scoop up fuel when a petrol tanker overturned and then exploded. A mass burial for the victims has been held in Majia, a town in the Taura area of northern Jigawa state, after the crash there late on Tuesday night.

A fuel tanker overturned late on Tuesday in Nigeria's northern state of Jigawa after the driver lost control of the vehicle, spilling petrol which exploded and killed at least 147 people, police and state emergency services said on Wednesday.

A crashed fuel tanker exploded Tuesday night in northern Nigeria, killing 147 people and injuring many others who had gathered around the overturned vehicle to gather leaking gasoline.

At least 94 people were killed in northern Nigeria on Tuesday when a crashed tanker exploded near locals who had gathered to retrieve fuel, police told CNN. The toll is expected to rise from the blast,