An explosion and fire at an oil pipeline in Nigeria's commercial capital, Lagos, has killed at least 260 people and left dozens more badly burned.
It is understood that people had come to tap the pipeline for fuel this morning before putting it into several tanker trucks.
The explosion occurred afterwards as local residents crowded in to take petrol for themselves.
Police at the scene refused to give estimates of the number of dead and injured. However the Nigerian Red Cross said the final toll could be very high.
Those who got burned had been taken to hospital in Ikeja, another northern suburb.
It took firefighters about six hours to extinguish the flames as hundreds of people gathered at the site.
Such incidents of pipeline tapping are frequent in Nigeria, where Lagos and other cities are prone to fuel shortages even though the west African country is a major oil producer.
Lagos State Governor Bola Ahmed Tinubu has visited the scene of the fire and said he was 'saddened at the tragedy'. He also promised that an investigation would be carried out.
