The death toll from a petrol tanker explosion in Nigeria has climbed to 86, according to emergency services. The tragedy occurred on Saturday when a truck carrying 60,000 liters (nearly 16,000 gallons) of gasoline overturned and exploded on a road in central Nigeria.
Many victims were reportedly rushing to gather fuel from the overturned tanker before the explosion.
Authorities continue to investigate the incident and provide support to affected families.
"The final death toll from the tanker explosion is 86," said Ibrahim Audu Husseini, spokesman for the Niger state's emergency management agency on Sunday.
"We buried 86 burnt corpses between noon yesterday to 2:00 am of today," he said, updating an earlier toll of 70.
"It took us 14 hours to bury the bodies because we couldn't get excavators and had to get locals to dig the mass grave manually."
He said 52 other people suffered "severe burns from the explosion".
The blast struck at the Dikko junction on the road linking the federal capital Abuja to the northern city of Kaduna.