An explosion killed at least three people Wednesday after a fuel truck overturned and spilt its load across a road in southern Nigeria, police said. "Three persons were burnt to beyond recognition, four vehicles and three motorcycles were burnt to ashes," Delta State police spokesman Onome Onowakpoyeya told AFP. "An unspecified number of persons sustained various degrees of burns as a result of the fire." People from the surrounding area gathered by the tanker to collect fuel after it overturned, said an eyewitness, Mamus Okpogode. "A spark from a vehicle conveying traders to the local market ignited the inferno that engulfed the tanker," he said. Okpogode said he counted at least seven dead at the scene and that 18 wounded people were taken to hospital. Such blasts are common in Nigeria, where many people live in poverty even though the country is the biggest oil producer on the continent, with around two million barrels per day. Incidents regularly occur when residents try to siphon off oil or petrol from pipelines or when tanker drivers have accidents on the country's ill-maintained roads. str-del/erc