About 200 people were feared killed in an oil pipeline explosion in early hours of Friday, said a statement issued by the Lagos State Police Command.

In the statement, the police said all the dead were "burned to death beyond recognition."

According to eyewitnesses in the Apapa ferry to the Atlas Creek Island where the blast occurred, they had seen thick black smoke rising from the island this morning, but never thought it could be an oil pipeline explosion and could kill about 200 people.

Earlier, Nigerian Red Cross head Abiodun Orebiyi told reporters that more than 100 people were burnt to death in the explosion.

Nigerians living in out-of-the-way areas like the Atlas Creek Island are very poor. Stealing finished oil products from oil pipeline is very common in these poverty-stricken areas. The past few years have seen a string of pipeline explosions, with each killing dozens people. But this time about 200 people were killed is seldom.

The Atlas Creek Island is a small fishing village in the Atlantic Ocean, about 20 kilometers southwest of the downtown of Lagos, the commercial capital of Lagos.

Source: Xinhua