Shocking moment friends cheat death after one lights a cigarette and throws a match on
A man and his friends were just moments from death after one lit a cigarette and caused an explosion at a petrol station.
Footage caught the dramatic moment a huge flame surged into the air after the man dropped the match he had used, sending him and his friends running for their lives and reaching a trucker who was filling his cab with diesel just a few feet away.
The shocking incident happened in the city of Timon in the north-east Brazilian state of Maranhao.
Incredibly no-one was injured in the scare, with the petrol station attendant reacting within seconds by using a fire extinguisher to put out the blaze, which almost set alight a motorbike between the group and the lorry.
Petrol station workers are said to have asked customers to move away from the lorry before the trucker started filling up as a precaution.
The near-tragedy occurred on Monday night at a Petroflex filling station in Timon, located on the Parnaiba River, which forms a natural border with the neighbouring city of Teresina in the state of Piaui.
More than 40 people were injured after a huge explosion at a petrol station in Rome in July.
Footage caught the dramatic moment a huge flame surged into the air after a man dropped the match he had used to light a cigarette, close to a petrol station in Timon, Brazil
The friends went running for their lives after huge flames erupted across the forecourt
A petrol station worker reacted swiftly to put the flames out close to a lorry filling with diesel
The drama happened in the city’s Prenestino neighbourhood when a tanker hit a pipe while it was manoeuvring.
Police said afterwards the 45 casualties included police officers, with two men reportedly left with life-threatening major burns.
Rome’s mayor Roberto Gualtieri visited the site after the explosion and fire.
More than 40 people were injured after a huge explosion at a petrol station in Rome in July
One eyewitness told Italian outlet La Repubblica that it looked as though a bomb had gone off.
‘I was running, as the crow flies I was less than a hundred meters from the gas pump,’ Massimo Bartoletti said.
‘I saw the first explosion with the classic fireball. Shortly after came the second one which was hellish. A fiery mushroom cloud formed in the sky. It shook the whole area. It looked like hell, everything was flying in the sky.’
Parts of a fuel tanker were reportedly blown hundreds of metres away from the station, such was the force of the blast.