Inquiry begins into Nigeria blasts

An inquiry has been launched into the blasts at a Nigerian armoury which led to the deaths of 700 people.

There are fears that the death toll from the tragedy in Lagos could rise even higher, with local newspapers saying it could reach 2,000. Most of the victims drowned in two nearby canals as they fled the explosions on Sunday.

Ministers said on Tuesday they planned to now move the armoury from the crowded residential Ikeja district in north Lagos.

President Olusegun Obasanjo, whose government has been criticised over the blasts, ordered the inquiry when he visited the devastated barracks on Monday.

VIDEO Multiple explosions rock a Nigerian military armory in Lagos, leaving many missing and thousands homeless. Play video (QuickTime, Real or Windows Media)

The lower-chamber House of Representatives ordered the president to cancel scheduled official visits to the United States and Venezuela.

Tuesday was declared a national day of mourning after the tragedy, the worst to hit Nigeria's biggest city for a decade, with flags flying at half mast at government offices across the country.

Reuters reported that Defence Minister Theophilus Danjuma had ordered "the immediate relocation of the armoury" after inspecting damage at the barracks.

The agency said he appeared to suggest there was foundation in speculation that the devastation was not caused just by an accidental fire.

"Anything already said by any military officer is premature," Danjuma said. The commander of the Ikeja cantonment, Brigadier-General George Emdin, had earlier appeared on state television to reject rumours that the explosions were the beginnings of a coup.

Some military officials had said the blasts were caused by a fire which started in a market near the armoury, but an army spokesman said: "The market is far away from the depot...The board will now unearth the real causes."

Rescue officials retrieved dozens of bodies from the canals on Tuesday.

Angry residents blamed the country's military for the disaster, wanting to know why such an old weapons store was allowed to house such powerful bombs inside the city.

Residents living in the disaster area said a smaller blast at the very same depot last year went unreported and no safety changes were made. They said the tragedy could have been very easily avoided.

Rescuers told Reuters they had found more bodies after resuming the search on Tuesday.

More than a dozen other deaths were reported by witnesses elsewhere in the city of over 10 million people.

It was not immediately clear how many people died in the blasts themselves, though Army Brig. Gen. George Emdin told AP that there was "absolutely no one killed" inside the Ikeja armoury barracks.

The official view differed from that of Mustafa Igama, a soldier at the base, who told The Associated Press hat he had seen "so many dead bodies" as he fled the scene.

Residents said that if Sunday night's explosions had happened on a weekday, around 3,000 children would have been attending three schools destroyed in the blasts.

"I think those who say God is a Nigerian are correct," said one soldier.

"We are fortunate that most of the weapons were stored underground; otherwise, the whole of Lagos could have been on fire."

About half the buildings at the site were destroyed, including two secondary schools and one primary school.

Femi Orewale, a student of the cantonment's Command Secondary School, said on Monday: "I am really shocked because if this thing had happened today, maybe all the students in the three schools (in the barracks) would have been killed."