Reporting from Abuja, Al Jazeera’s Ahmed Idris said on Thursday that the death toll from the disaster had reached 157, with health workers in Jigawa State saying more than 100 others were being treated in hospitals, the severity of their burns and injuries indicating that the death toll could rise.

Police spokesman Lawan Shiisu Adam said the tanker was travelling from the ancient city of Kano to Yobe State in the north when the driver lost control of the vehicle near the town of Majiya, about 530km (330 miles) north of the capital Abuja, causing it to overturn and spill fuel.

On Wednesday, the biggest funeral took place, with more than 100 victims buried, said Idris.

“Not everyone who was killed was part of the crowd that was collecting the fuel,” he pointed ou

“It’s a sad story and a lot of people are shocked by what is happening, but a lot of people also are not surprised, [with] rising poverty levels, shortages and the rise in petrol prices … forcing more and more people to desperate measures,” he said.

Witness Adamu Abdullahi, 37, narrowly missed being hit by the blast that took place at midnight on Tuesday.

“I was there when the whole thing happened, I scooped up the oil and went home to drop it. I picked up my bike to come back, but it developed a fault. While fixing it, I then heard the loud explosion,” he said.

“Little did they know it is a cause of death,” said Haruna Mairiga, executive secretary of the Jigawa State Emergency Management Agency. “Some of them that engaged in fetching this fuel were caught up with the fire. In the process of taking, there [was] a flash of light and the place caught fire.”

With the absence of an efficient railway system to transport cargo, fatal truck accidents are common along most of the major roads in Nigeria – Africa’s most populous country, with more than 220 million residents.

In 2020 alone, there were 1,531 petrol tanker crashes resulting in 535 deaths and 1,142 injuries, according to Nigeria’s Federal Road Safety Corps.

Just last month, a fuel tanker that was also carrying cattle collided with another truck, causing an explosion that killed at least 48 people, and at least 50 of the animals burned alive.

“The road infrastructure in Nigeria is in very bad shape, [with] potholes and in some places craters on the highways. These are the obstacles that drivers try to avoid and in the process, many of them lose control of their vehicles,” said Idris.

Investigations have been launched into the latest disasters. However, said Idris, “the authorities have over the past few decades failed to fix the road infrastructure”.

Many tankers are not designed according to international best practices to avoid spillage during accidents, said Timothy Iwuagwu, president of the Institute of Safety Professionals of Nigeria.

The agencies charged with enforcing safety regulations often fail to do so, he said.

“There are also not enough awareness campaigns, [and] people are not wilfully compliant” with safety measures when such accidents happen, Iwuagwu said.

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The tanker appeared to have got stuck under a low bridge on Saturday morning in Boksburg city, about 100m from Tambo Memorial Hospital.

Patients were evacuated from the hospital’s casualty after part of the roof collapsed following the blast.

The truck was carrying liquid petroleum gas.

“Apparently, a gas tanker drove under the subway bridge and got stuck in there, and due to friction, it caught alight,” emergency services spokesperson William Ntladi was quoted as saying.

As firefighters tried to put out the blaze, there was a huge second explosion – captured on amateur video – that destroyed a fire engine and two motor vehicles.

There are fears the death toll could rise, as 19 people are in critical condition and 15 others are stable but seriously hurt, AFP reports.

Eyewitness Michael Kulinji described the blast as “more like a bomb” and told the Reuters news agency that he had seen the fire under the bridge.

Another witness, Jean Marie Booysen, said that she saw “immense flames at about 06:35 local time (04:35 GMT) and thought “this feels like 6.5 on the Richter”, according to Reuters.

Footage apparently taken in the immediate aftermath of the blast shows a number of dazed and burned people stumbling around a residential area near the epicentre.

The incident occurred in Abeokuta, the Ogun State capital, Nigeria on Sunday, November 28.

According to reports, the tanker overturned around 04.45 am while making its way inbound Rounder from Oju-Irin, Lafenwa area of Abeokuta.

Men of the Ogun State Traffic Compliance and Enforcement Corps, Babatunde Akinbiyi, Police, Federal Road Safety Corps and the firefighters were working to put out the fire.