The Plateau State Police Command on Thursday said 10 persons died when a fuel-laden tanker exploded at the Bauchi Road Junction in Jos, the state capital.
The spokesman for the command, Alabo Alfred, disclosed this in a statement made available to journalists.
Alfred said a tanker conveying Premium Motor Spirit lost control, crashed and burst into flames along the road.
He said, “On receipt of the ugly incident, the Commissioner of Police, CP Bartholomew Onyeka, directed the Angwan Rogo Divisional Police Officer and his team of detectives to move to the scene of the accident immediately. Upon their arrival, it was discovered that 10 yet-to-be-identified persons were burnt beyond recognition.
“Their lifeless bodies were later deposited at the Plateau Specialist Hospital, Jos, while three vehicles and two tricycles affected by the fire were recovered from the scene.”
The state Sector Commander of the Federal Road Safety Corps, Alphonsus Godwin, also confirmed the tanker fire but did not give the casualty figure.
Godwin said when the command got information about the incident, he quickly deployed his men on a rescue operation only for them to be attacked by a mob who also burnt one of their operational vehicles, forcing them to withdraw from the scene.
He said, “We have casualties during the incident but we are not sure of the figure for now. When it happened, our men mobilised to the scene.
“We went with three vehicles. The first one carried the victims heading to the hospital. At the scene, our men were attacked and one of our patrol vehicles that went for rescue operation was burnt.”
The sector commander, who attributed the crash to break failure, said he would give details once the operation had been concluded.
Our correspondent, however, learnt that apart from the FRSC officials, other rescue workers including men of the Federal Fire Service and that of the Red Cross were also attacked by the mob.
An official of the Federal Fire Service, Nanya Dul, who was part of the rescue operation, decried the attacks on their men during the operation saying, “It is for this reason that we are saying that we should be allowed to bear arms for protection to avoid incident of this nature because the mob also vandalised one of our vehicles.
“I think the government should do something in this regard and save our men on a rescue mission from further attacks.”
