(Agencies)
Updated: 2008-01-12 20:31

LAGOS - At least 30 people were killed and several shops razed Saturday when a fuel tanker exploded in Port Harcourt, the hub of Nigeria's multi-billion-dollar oil industry and a target of attacks by militants.

"The incident happened at Eleme junction in the city. The details are still sketchy," Rivers state police spokeswoman Ireju Barasua reported.

A fleet of empty fuel tankers are parked on the outskirts of Lagos in 2003. At least 30 people were killed when a fuel tanker exploded in Port Harcourt, the hub of Nigeria's multi-billion-dollar oil industry, January 12, 2008. [Agencies]

Residents said no fewer than 30 people burned to death while many others were injured when the tanker exploded and burst into flames.

Reporter said the tanker was carrying stolen petrol and the driver was trying to escape a team of policemen that were chasing the vehicle when it fell over and spilled its contents in the area.

He said many people were injured while 13 vehicles, including 10 buses, and several shops located around a popular bus station were razed in the inferno.

The incident happened a day after the most prominent militant group in the restive region MEND claimed responsibility for an oil tanker blast in the city.

The Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta said in a statement that its fighters had detonated "a remote explosive device" that sparked the blaze on the vessel which was berthed at the Port Harcourt seaport.

The MEND group shot to prominence early last year with a string of kidnappings of foreign oil workers as well as attacks on oil company property.

The group says that contrary to criminal gangs operating in the Niger Delta, it is working to improve the lot of the ordinary people of the Delta.

MEND also claimed responsibility on Thursday for an attack on four ships earlier this week and warned of more attacks.

The attack on four ships in the Bonny Channel, Nigeria's largest oil and gas export terminal, left two people injured, oil industry and security sources said.

One of the ships belonged to or was operated by ExxonMobil and another by Addax Petroleum, one source said.

MEND warned of more attacks, telling civilians in the area not to congregate around military checkpoints or their vehicles and those living under the flight paths of military helicopters to be vigilant.

It also advised foreigners to leave the Niger Delta for their own safety.

Instability and violence slashed by a quarter oil output in Nigeria, the world's eighth-largest crude exporter, in 2006 and 2007 to 2.1 million barrels per day, according to the latest estimates.

Last year, more than 200 foreign workers were taken hostage, often being released after a ransom was paid, but oil firms rarely admit publicly to making such payments