At least 52 people have been killed after a fuel tanker collided head on with a lorry carrying passengers and cattle in central Nigeria.

The crash caused an explosion that destroyed both vehicles, which had been travelling in Niger State on Saturday night.

Abdullahi Baba-Arab, the director general of the Niger State Emergency Agency, said rescuers were still working to recover bodies from inside the truck. 

Video footage showed the wreckage of the two burnt-out vehicles alongside dead cattle.

‘Worst accident in many years’

Hussain Ibrahim, a spokesman for the agency, told the BBC that funerals for the victims had taken place on Sunday.

“We had a mass burial for 52 people yesterday, and we have eight people receiving treatment at the hospital,” he said. “This, without doubt, is the worst accident we have recorded in many years.”

He added that the Niger state government was paying the hospital bills of those injured.

Mohammed Bago, the governor of Niger State, asked nearby residents to remain calm and called on road users to “always be cautious and abide by road traffic regulations to safeguard lives and property”.

Fatal truck accidents are common on major roads in Nigeria in the absence of an efficient railway system to transport goods.