Up to 100 people have been killed after a runaway¹ truck ploughed into a crowded market in Nigeria.

尼日利亚一辆失控卡车冲进一个拥挤的集市，造成多达100人死亡。

Officials said 55 people died, but a BBC reporter at the scene, in Kogi state, counted at least 100 corpses尸体.

Kogi state police said the lorry卡车，货车 hurtled猛冲 down a hill at speed, smashing cars and motorcycles then crashing into the market, injuring up to 40 people.

Traffic accidents are common in Nigeria because vehicles and roads are badly maintained维护，保持.

"I can only confirm that 55 people were killed. The driver of the truck lost control and ran into a group of people moving in a procession队伍，行列 along the road," a senior police officer told AFP news agency.

Burned beyond recognition

Kogi state commander of the Federal Road Safety Commission, Yomi Asaniyan, said brake failure was the cause.

Declaring three days of mourning, Ibrahim Idris, the governor of Kogi state, expressed his sadness and offered to pay the medical bills of those injured.

Eyewitnesses³ told Nigeria's Sunday Trust newspaper that the market in Allo village in the Dekina area was filled to capacity when it was rammed⁴ by the lorry.

A number of vehicles caught fire, burning people beyond recognition. It is not yet clear whether the accident happened on Friday or Saturday.

Last week, more than 20 people burned to death when a bus carrying mourners哀悼者，送葬者 to a funeral collided with冲突，碰撞 a truck on a road in Oyo state, south-west Nigeria.