Two men died early Wednesday morning after a tanker explosion in Abia State.

The incident occurred at Chibyno filling station along Alaoji-Ikot-Ekpene Road in Obingwa Local Government Area.

Aba Fire Service Zonal Commander, Belenta Belenta, confirmed the incident to the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN).

Belenta said the victims were suspected to be involved in oil bunkering as they were discharging petroleum products before daybreak.

The official confirmed that five trucks were consumed by the fire caused by the explosion at the site.

Belenta said personnel of the service eventually put out the inferno after mobilization.

The police took the corpse of one of the victims from the scene to the mortuary.

The other victim, who was rushed to the hospital, also did not make it.

Another witness, who identified himself as Nnamdi, said he lives in the area and was awakened by calls around 5:00am to come to the scene of the fire.

“Very early this morning around 5 a.m., some persons called me to tell me that there is a fire outbreak at a nearby filling station called Chibyno Filling Station at the Ikot-Ekpene / Alaoji Road,” he said.

“We called fire fighters who came to the scene which had snowballed into a very big inferno that covered the whole filling station.

“The filling station had four trucks which were discharging fuel at the same time.

“We learnt that there was a little spark from the generating set they were using to pump the fuel into their tank which resulted in an explosion.”