Tanzania has held a mass funeral for people who died when an overturned fuel tanker exploded on Saturday.

Officials have said people were trying to siphon fuel from the vehicle on a main road in the Morogoro region when it exploded, killing 71.

The city of Morogoro is on a major route for transporting cargo and fuel from the port.

"Many people died here, even those who were not stealing fuel because this is a busy place," said eyewitness Daniel Ngogo, quoted by Reuters news agency.

Last month at least 45 people were killed when a crashed fuel tanker exploded in Nigeria's northern Benue state.

Nearly 80 people died in May in a similar incident near the airport of Niger's capital Niamey.

Occasionally such disasters have led to a much higher death toll. In 2010 292 people were killed in the Democratic Republic of Congo, and five years later 203 died in South Sudan.