Five people, including a four-year-old child, were killed in a massive explosion at a pyrotechnics warehouse in the southern Philippines, emergency services said Sunday.

The Saturday afternoon blast at the Zamboanga City site tore a large hole in the ground, sent debris careening into nearby buildings and houses and ignited a blaze, fire investigator Luigi Chan told AFP.

Four warehouse workers and the four-year-old son of one of the staffers were killed, Chan said.

The city disaster office confirmed the death toll and said another 38 people had been injured in the incident, eight of them seriously.

Authorities said they are investigating the cause of the explosion, which created a 20-metre (66-foot) crater, dismantled the depot's walls and rained rubble on a nearby soft drinks factory, a grains and flour warehouse and area homes.

"The most probable origin of the fire is the pyrotechnics stored at the warehouse," Chan told AFP.

He said the blast radius extended more than 3,000 square metres (0.8 acres) and it took firefighters more than two hours to bring the blaze under control.

At least 34 people, including two babies were killed when a contraband fuel depot exploded into flames in southern Benin near the border with Nigeria on Saturday.

According to Beninese Interior Minister Alassane Seidou, “a serious fire occurred in the town of Seme Podji. Another 20 people were seriously wounded in the incident.”

"I can't really give you the cause of the fire, but there is a large gasoline warehouse here and cars, tricycles and motorcycles come from morning to evening,” he added.

Nigeria is a main oil and gas producer where fuel smuggling is very common along its borders, particularly when the government maintains a subsidy to keep fuel prices low.

The majority of the victims were burnt and they could not be not be identified.

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