Blast at Nigeria Gas Plant Kills More than 100

Witnesses said the tragedy occurred after a tanker made a delivery to the Chikason Group Gas plant in Nnewi, in the predominantly Christian state of Anambra in the south-east of the country.

As many as 100 people are feared dead after an explosion at a crowded Nigerian gas plant as scores queued to fill their cooking cylinders ahead of Christmas.

President Muhammadu Buhari’s office said “tens of people” who had been looking forward to their Christmas celebrations had been killed, without giving a precise toll.

Former Vice President and chieftain of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Atiku Abubakar expresses deep sadness over the gas factory fire in Nnewi, Anambra State, which claimed scores of lives and destroyed properties.

The fire from the explosion burned for hours and prevented rescue workers from entering the plant where some people “in their hundreds” had been trapped, local reports say.

“When there is a sound like that you run for your life, the volume was so high”, Prince said to AFP. “They are just gone like that”.

There are conflicting accounts about the cause of the explosion and the authorities have not explained what triggered it.

‘Definitely more than two people are dead, ‘ said police spokesman Ali Okechukwu.

James Eze, a spokesman for the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) said the blast scorched an area the size of three football fields, and caused damage farther afield.

Peters, 36, said most of the corpses and the few seriously injured victims were evacuated to Nnamdi Azikiwe University Teaching Hospital.

“The people were burnt beyond recognition”.

The Acting Director of the state Fire Service, Mr Innocent Mbonu, said although some nearby buildings were affected, six persons died before the service came.