UPDATED:10 Reportedly Killed As Explosion Rocks NNPC Pipeline In Rivers

An explosion has been reported at the facility of Pipelines and Product Marketing Company, (PPMC), subsidiary of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, (NNPC) in Komkom community in Oyigbo Local Government Area of Rivers State.

BIGPEN Online understands that the burst occurred from a pipeline undergoing repair work on Saturday.

Unverified reports say scores of persons including children and women were badly injured and about ten others reportedly died.

Local sources disclosed that there was a spill at the site of the ongoing repairs which ignited the explosion.

“It was the process of fetching the product that resulted in the explosion and causing many casualties. I can’t give exact figure but some persons were killed while others were injured”, the source added.

Although BIGPEN Online couldn’t independently verify this information as details were still sketchy at of the time of filing this report, the Rivers State Police Command confirmed the incident.

The State Police Public Relations Officer, Nnamdi Omoni, however said there were casaulties from the incident.

Omoni said, ”It appeared that there were spills where some residents try to scoop it which led to the explosion. There were casualties but i don’t have the exact figure now. We are already investigating the incident“.