The death toll from a fuel truck explosion in Nigeria has reached 86, the director-general of the regional emergency agency said.

A petrol truck overturned and exploded on Saturday in Dikko, Niger State, killing people who had gathered to scoop fuel from the wreckage.

"80 of them are in a mass grave at Dikko (Primary Health Centre), while five were taken into town by relatives, and one died at Dikko PHC," Abdullahi Baba-Ara, director-general of the Niger State Emergency Management Agency, said in a statement on Sunday.

Fifty-five others were injured.

A similar incident occurred in Jigawa State in October, killing 147 people.

The price of fuel has soared since 2023 when President Bola Tinubu ended a fuel subsidy as part of economic reforms.