LAGOS: Up to 500 people may have been killed in an explosion at a fuel pipeline in Nigeria's largest city, Lagos, the Nigerian Red Cross said.

"It is a densely populated area. We are taking hundreds. Sixty have been evacuated to hospital, badly burned. We are yet to confirm the death toll so we don't know if it is 300, 400 or 500," Red Cross secretary-general Abiodun Orebiyi said.