Lagos, Nigeria — As onlookers wept and wailed, hundreds of bodies were pulled out of a canal in Nigeria's largest city Monday after they drowned while trying to flee explosions at an army weapons depot.
Many victims apparently didn't realize how deep the water was and drowned when they ran and drove vehicles into the Oke Afa drainage canal in Lagos, witnesses said. They were fleeing explosions at the city's Ikeja military base, which propelled shrapnel and shock waves for miles Sunday night.
People gather around a building destroyed Sunday night during a chain of powerful explosions in Lagos, Nigeria. According to witnesses, hundreds of onlookers plunged into the nearby weed-choked Oke Afa canal and drowned as they fled the explosions, which were apparently set off by a fire at a gas station.
Rescue volunteer Ben Nwachukwu said more than 200 bodies were pulled from just one part of the canal. Other volunteers said the death toll could be much higher, but getting an accurate count was difficult in part because the current was carrying bodies downstream. Authorities issued no official death count.
An Associated Press reporter saw at least 35 corpses in the water, on the grass and in the backs of trucks being driven away.
Many children were separated from their families during Sunday night's panic, said Lagos State Police Commissioner Mike Okiro. He said some children were being cared for at police stations until their families could be located.
Army spokesman Col. Felix Chukwumah said the explosions began when a fire spread to the depot, which is surrounded by crowded slums and working-class neighborhoods. He did not know how the fire started, but a police officer said Sunday it began at a nearby gas station.
State and military officials said the fire was accidental and not an indication of military unrest.
Dozens of blasts sent fireballs towering over this city of 12 million and shattered windows six miles away at the international airport.
The explosions continued into the early morning hours on Monday.
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