The New Nation - Internet Edition

AFP, Lagos

An oil pipeline explosion killed about 100 people on Thursday near a primary school in a suburb north of Lagos, the Red Cross said.

An earth-moving excavator at a road construction site accidentally burst the pipeline causing the explosion and an inferno which engulfed adults and children stood nearby, Red Cross official Sule Mekudi told AFP from the site of the disaster. The blast erupted near a primary school in the suburban town of Ijegun, and the area was littered with shoes and bags belonging to pupils, a journalist at the scene told AFP.

Local people threw sand and water at the flames in a bid to help firefighters extinguish the blaze, witnesses said.

"About 100 people were confirmed dead in the explosion. We have also evacuated about 20 others to the Ikeja general hospital," Mekudi told AFP. Most of the injured had suffered serious burns, he added.

Pipeline fires are commonplace in Nigeria, Africa's biggest oil producer, in part because of poor pipeline maintenance but also because of thieves who vandalise pipelines to siphon off petrol to sell on the black market.