As onlookers wept and wailed, hundreds of bodies were pulled out of a canal in Nigeria's largest city yesterday after they drowned while trying to flee explosions at an army weapons depot.

Many victims apparently didn't realize how deep the water was and drowned when they ran and drove vehicles into the Oke Afa drainage canal in Lagos, witnesses said. They were fleeing explosions at the city's Ikeja military base, which propelled shrapnel and shock waves for miles Sunday night.

Rescue volunteer Ben Nwachukwu said more than 200 bodies were pulled from just one part of the canal. Other volunteers said the death toll could be much higher, but getting an accurate count was difficult - in part because the current was carrying bodies downstream. Authorities issued no official death count.

An Associated Press reporter saw at least 35 corpses in the water, on the grass, and in the backs of trucks being driven away.

Many children were separated from their families during Sunday night's panic, said Lagos State Police Commissioner Mike Okiro. He said some children were being cared for at police stations until their families could be located.

Army spokesman Col. Felix Chukwumah said the explosions began when a fire spread to the depot, which is surrounded by crowded slums and working-class neighborhoods. He did not know how the fire started, but a police officer said Sunday it began at a nearby gas station.

State and military officials said the fire was accidental and not an indication of military unrest.

Dozens of blasts sent fireballs towering over this city of 12 million and shattered windows six miles away at the international airport. The explosions continued into the early morning yesterday.

A jury of eight women and four men was picked yesterday for the murder trial of Andrea Yates, the mother who claims she was suffering from postpartum depression when she drowned her five children in the bathtub.

Yates, 37, has pleaded innocent by reason of insanity. She is charged in three of the drownings, which took place last June. Prosecutors are seeking the death penalty.

Jury selection began Jan. 7.

"It can either be that there is something wrong with her or that she is a really bad person," said the unidentified woman who became the 12th and final juror during questioning yesterday. "I don't know what the problem is."

Seven jurors indicated they have children. Two women said they had psychology degrees.

Two alternate jurors must still be selected. Testimony is expected to begin in mid-February.

Yates is charged in the deaths of her 7-year-old son, her 5-year-old son and her 6-month-old daughter. She has yet to be charged in the deaths of the two other youngsters, ages 2 and 3.

A plot to steal the "fountain of youth" apparently cost Konstantin Simberg his life at age 21.

Simberg was killed after he began serving as an informant on what police say was a scheme to steal a million-dollar shipment of Saizen, a human growth hormone that can help slow the effects of aging and is sold on the black market for use by athletes.

Simberg's last telephone conversation with a detective was cut off with a scream just before his body - bound and showing signs of torture - turned up in the woods of northwestern Arizona last month.

Since then, authorities have charged three young men in the slaying. Two others have been charged with money laundering and other offenses and are under investigation in the killing.

"The twists and turns of this case have been just unbelievable," said Detective Tom Britt, Simberg's contact at the Phoenix Police Department.

Saizen, sometimes called the fountain of youth, replaces natural hormones such as testosterone that decline as people age beyond 40.

The alleged plot unraveled just months before the Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City. Britt said police have no firm evidence of any plan to sell the hormone to athletes.

"But we always thought it was interesting that this was done right before the winter Olympics in Salt Lake City," he said. "The timing was intriguing."

Police say Troy Langdon, 28, the manager of Cactus Pharmacy, and friend Sean Southland, 33, hatched the plot to steal and sell 6,000 vials of Saizen, worth about $1 million wholesale and an estimated $3 million on the black market.

The two men allegedly hired Simberg and four others to steal the drug from a FedEx driver as he made his delivery to the Phoenix pharmacy on Sept. 24.