At least 80 people were killed in the explosion at an illegal oil refinery in southern Nigeria, emergency services said on Sunday.
The incident, which became known on Sunday, occurred on Friday night between the southern oil states of Rivers and Imo, police said.
“We recovered at least 80 severely burned bodies,” Ifeanyi Nnaji, of the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA), told the AFP news agency, adding that the number of victims could rise.
“We learned that there are many bodies in the bush and in the nearby woods,” he added.
Police confirmed that the explosion took place at an illegal refinery.
Some media outlets reported more than 100 deaths in the explosion, the latest in a long series in this country, Africa’s leading oil producer, where this type of accident is frequent.
