Emergency Fund) with Red Cross and WHO (World Health Organisation) are mounting a medical response," Stella Going, UNICEF chief of health services in Nigeria told Reuters in Lagos. "One-and-a-half truckloads of medical supplies and equipment have left Lagos for the area to respond to this emergency," she said, adding that there has been no request for assistance from the Nigerian government. Hundreds of bodies charred beyond recognition have been buried in mass graves near the southern oil town of Warri. The graves are beside the pipeline which spewed petrol for three days, drew a crowd of thousands to harvest the gushing fuel, then exploded in flames. Most local news media said the death toll from the blaze was already above 500, with many of an estimated 1,000 injured unlikely to survive. No official toll has been announced but state television on Monday night reported 450 known dead. Many of the victims were women and children who had flocked with scoops, cans and pans to collect and sell fuel from the broken pipeline. Scores were roasted in a concrete ditch where a pool of petrol had collected. A patch of land the size of a soccer pitch was charred by the fire. The state-owned Pipelines and Products Marketing Company (PPMC) believes the line had been deliberately broken — a common crime in an oil-rich country where fuel is often in short supply and many communities resent the government and foreign oil companies. The mainly government-owned Daily Times quoted military ruler General Abubakar on Tuesday as saying relief was not likely from the government to the families of the dead. Company officials said they expected the fire to burn out as the flow through the pipeline was now shut off. With the pipeline shut, parts of the north and most of the west of the country fed from the refinery in Warri have been cut off from fuel supplies, and shortages have worsened. Despite being Africa‘s biggest oil producer, with a daily output of over two million barrels, Nigeria has been forced to rely on fuel imports in recent years because poorly maintained state refineries fail to meet local demand.