A yet-to-be-identified woman has been killed in a tanker accident in the Mile 2 area of Lagos State, south-west Nigeria.
The incident which occurred at about 3am on Friday involved a tanker loaded with 55,000 litres of Premium Motor Spirit (PMS) also known as petrol.
The Director-General of Lagos State Emergency Management Agency (LASEMA), Olufemi Oke-Osanyintolu, confirmed the incident in a statement hours after it occurred.
He explained that the tanker rammed into a pothole directly in front of the Nigerian Army Signal Barracks in the area and fell sideways, resulting in its contents spilling out onto the road.
Oke-Osanyintolu said after a team of emergency officials arrived in the area, it was discovered that the driver of the tanker and his assistant immediately fled the scene.
He added that further investigation revealed that a female adult, who was seated beside the tanker drivers, was trapped in the impact and lost her life.
According to the LASEMA boss, the remains of the victim were pinned to the dashboard from the impact of the tanker head.
“The agency’s heavy-duty equipment (crane) is en route to the scene in order to recover the tanker together with its contents,” the statement said as of the time of this report.
Oke-Osanyintolu, however, stated that transloading of the contents has been placed on hold until the ownership of the tanker and product was determined.
He said firefighters of the agency and officials of the Lagos State Fire Service and the Nigerian Army were on standby to arrest any potential secondary incident.
See more photos from the scene of the accident below:
