A gas explosion caused the blast that rocked Abule-Ado area of Lagos state, southwest Nigeria, according to the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC).
Naijaparry News reports that at least 15 persons lost their lives while over 70 houses were destroyed as a result of the explosion that occurred in the early hours of Sunday morning.
Spokesman for the NNPC Kennie Obateru said that the blast occurred after a truck hit some gas cylinders stacked in a gas processing plant located near the corporation’s System 2B pipeline right of way.
He added that preliminary findings indicated that the impact of the explosion was huge that it led to the collapse of nearby houses and damaged some NNPC pipelines.
Obateru said when the corporation heard about the explosion, it halted pumping operation on the Atlas Cove-Mosimi pipeline which was active at the time of the incident.
He assured that the temporary shutdown of the petroleum products pipeline would not affect the normal supply of products to Lagos and neighbouring states.
“We have gotten about 15 bodies recovered and there are reports of children and their principal being involved, but we cannot give the figures out now because there are many factors with revealing children involved in an accident, so we are keeping it for the safety of the children,” spokesman for the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA), Ibrahim Farinloye, said.
