By
The Associated Press
LAGOS, Nigeria - A Lagos-bound bus slammed into a gasoline tanker parked along a highway in eastern Nigeria, causing an enormous fireball that consumed the bus and killed at least 50 people, news reports said yesterday.
Another seven people were reported to be severely injured.
The accident happened Tuesday night in the town of Naze, near the eastern city of Owerri, when the "luxury bus" - a Western-style coach outfitted with individual cushioned seats - crashed at high speed into the tanker about an hour into its journey, the Lagos-based Guardian newspaper reported.
It was unclear how many people, if any, escaped injury from either vehicle.
The Guardian reported the tanker had broken down, but that there were no warning signs to alert motorists of its presence.
"Residents who thronged the scene, ostensibly to rescue the victims, wept uncontrollably as the passengers in the luxury bus were burned by a raging fire," the report said.
The Lagos-based Vanguard newspaper quoted a witness as saying that the driver of the tanker had parked along the road to sell gasoline to black marketeers.
Horrific highway accidents occur regularly on Nigeria's poorly lighted roads, where high-speed traffic involves large numbers of ill-maintained vehicles on the verge of breakdown. Residents said there had been a similar accident three weeks ago near the same spot, killing 18 people.
