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LAGOS : Nigerian firefighters Friday managed to douse the flames from a burst oil pipeline a day after a huge explosion triggered a blaze that lasted more than a day.
"The fire has now been completely put out," National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) official Abdulsalam Mohammed told AFP.
Thousands of people were milling around the site of Thursday's explosion at Ijegun, north of Lagos.
The Nigeria Red Cross said some 100 people were killed when an excavator accidentally pierced the pipeline, creating a lake of petrol that ignited into a huge fireball which engulfed a local school, cars and shoppers.
But local council and government officials said the toll was much lower.
"The death toll as at this morning was 14. Yesterday, we recovered 10 bodies, including that of a two-year-old girl. But this morning our men recovered four more", Mohammed said.
Local government official Olatunde Agoro put the figure at 15. "I don't think 100 is the correct figure. 100 is out of the question. This morning the figure was 15."
He said he was still waiting for an assistant to report back from a local hospital treating some serious burn cases.
Agoro said he had visited a hospital which had admitted 16 blast victims.
He said 14 people whose homes were burnt spent the night at the local council premises and were still there on Friday.
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.
- AFP /ls
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