A fuel tanker has collided head on with another truck in Nigeria, causing an explosion that killed at least 48 people, the country’s emergency response agency has said.

The tanker was also carrying cattle in the Agaie area in north-central Niger state, at least 50 of which were burned alive, Abdullahi Baba-Arab, director-general of the Niger State Emergency Management Agency, said. He added that search and rescue operations were under way at the scene of the accident.

Baba-Arab said initially that 30 bodies were found, but in a later statement said an additional 18 bodies of victims who were burned to death in the collision were found. He said the dead had been given a mass burial.

Mohammed Bago, the governor of Niger state, said residents of the affected area should remain calm and asked road users to “always be cautious and abide by road traffic regulations to safeguard lives and property”.

In 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.

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