At least 100 people have been killed in an oil pipeline explosion in Nigeria's commercial capital Lagos, the local Red Cross says.

The explosion tore through the Ijegun suburb, engulfing schools and homes after a bulldozer burst the pipeline.

Red Cross officials said many injured people had been taken to hospital and rescue attempts were still on.

A BBC reporter at the scene said people are fleeing for their lives as the fire spreads.

Children in schools in the blast area are feared dead.

"The fire is still going on, a lot of people are dead. Houses are burned. People are running for their lives," the AFP news agency quoted a Red Cross volunteer as saying.

At least 36 people have been taken to a nearby military hospital, National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) spokesman Abdulsalam Mohammed said.

Nigeria is one of the world's major oil producers and pipelines cut through many residential areas, both in cities such as Lagos and oil-producing areas.

Several of these have exploded, often when local people cut holes in them to steal oil.

The Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) says there at least 400 acts of vandalism on its pipelines each year, reports the AP news agency.

At least 40 people were killed in a pipeline explosion in December in Lagos last year.

In 2006, some 400 people were killed in two blasts in Lagos.