MAIDUGURI - The death toll from a fuel truck blast in Nigeria has reached 86, the director-general of the regional emergency agency said.

A petrol truck overturned and exploded on Saturday in Dikko, Niger State, killing people who had gone to scoop up fuel from the wreckage.

"80 of them are in mass grave at Dikko (primary health center), while 5 were carried away into town by relatives and 1 died at Dikko PHC," Abdullahi Baba-Ara, director-general of the Niger State Emergency Management Agency, said in a statement on Sunday.

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A further 55 people were injured.

A similar accident occurred in Jigawa State in October killing 147 people.

The price of fuel has soared since 2023 when President Bola Tinubu ended a fuel subsidy as part of economic reform.