At least 85 people are killed as they scoop up fuel from an overturned truck in South Sudan and someone lights a cigarette

Dozens of people siphoning fuel from a truck died when it exploded in South Sudan.

At least 85 people were killed in the explosion in Maridi town, Western Equatoria state yesterday, presidential spokesman Ateny Wek Ateny said.

The truck, which was 'full of petrol', veered off the road and residents were gathering fuel when someone lit a cigarette, according to Ateny. 

Provincial governor, Patrick Raphael Zamoi, cited a higher death toll of 176 and said others were critically injured.

'People are still dying; they have not assessed the exact number in the hospital,' Zamoi said. 

Ateny said the injured were taken to local hospitals, which were overwhelmed. Some victims were burned beyond recognition, he added.

More than 100 others suffered burns, local government official John Skia told South Sudanese Eye Radio

Layal Horanieh, spokeswoman for the International Committee of the Red Cross in the South Sudanese capital of Juba, said the aid group has sent two burn kits to Maridi, each with enough equipment to treat at least 50 patients.

Chandi Savior, a doctor at Maridi hospital, told Radio Tamazuj^[3] that they were struggling to help all those with burns, with supplies of basics such as oxygen and painkillers running low.#

Medics are 'not really able to calm down this pain', Savior told the radio station. 

Deadly fuel tanker explosions are common in East Africa, where poor residents living near highways converge around fuel tankers involved in accidents to steal gas and then sell it. 

South Sudan is also in the grip of a dire economic crisis sparked by over 21-months of civil war, which has caused rampant inflation and soaring prices of basics, including food and fuel.

The violence has left tens of thousands of people dead and the impoverished country split along ethnic lines.

More than two million people have fled their homes in a war marked by gang rapes and the use of child soldiers.

The government and rebels signed a peace deal on August 29, but the ceasefire - the eighth agreed - has been repeatedly broken as fighting continues.