Mass burials have taken place in the south-eastern Nigerian state of Imo, for dozens of victims of a deadly explosion at an illegal oil refinery.
Emergency officials say 110 people are now known to have died and more than 70 others were wounded in the blast on Friday night.
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Most of the victims of the huge explosion – including workers and people who had come to buy fuel at the illegal refinery – were burnt beyond recognition.
Officials say some families had already taken charred corpses they assumed were those of their loved ones – for private burials.
There have been frequent blasts at illegal refineries in southern Nigeria but the magnitude of the latest incident is very rare.
It’s still unclear what caused the explosion, and the owner of the facility has been declared wanted by the authorities.
Illegal refineries are improvised small plants where stolen crude oil is refined in the oil producing communities of Nigeria’s Niger Delta region. But they often cause deadly accidents and terrible environmental pollution.
