Hundreds of bodies pulled from canal after explosions

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.

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.

Cause of fire unknown

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 Monday.

Rescue workers and volunteers in canoes used long poles to search for corpses in the canal in the northern neighborhood of Isolo, five miles from the weapons depot. Onlookers cried and wailed each time they found a body.

'Strangers to the area'

Nwachukwu, a 38-year-old businessman who volunteered in the search effort, said he pulled a flailing woman and several children from the water late Sunday night.

But by dawn Monday, he said he was only finding bodies.

"The people who fell in here are strangers to the area," Nwachukwu said. "They didn't know there was water until they were drowning."