No fewer than 60 people sustained various degrees of injuries, following a tanker explosion at a petrol station in Sharad LGA, Kano state.
The tanker was offloading petrol at the station on Saturday evening, when the incident occurred.
Spokesman of the state fire service, Saminu Abdullahi, who addressed newsmen on Sunday, said 64 people were confirmed to have sustained injuries in the incident.
Abdullahi said fire fighters, passers-by and workers at the petrol station sustained varying degrees of injuries in the incident.
He said one of the workers at the filling station opened one of the tanker compartments, which caused an inferno that fire fighters were trying to control, before the explosion occurred.
He noted that 64 victims — including eight fire service personnel — were burnt in the explosion.
Kano State Commissioner for Works and Housing, Idris Rimi, said officials of the state’s fire service who were injured in the incident are currently receiving treatment at the Murtala Muhammad Specialist Hospital.
Rimi also blamed the accident on negligence on the part of the filling station, adding that offloading of petrol shouldn’t have been done in the afternoon.
Also, a team from the Red Cross Society in Kano were sighted rendering first aid services and evacuating the victims to the hospital.