NAIROBI - A Red Cross official says the death toll from a petrol pipeline explosion in Kenya's capital has risen to 82.

Red Cross coordinator Pamela Indiaka said yesterday that six more bodies were recovered from a sewage-filled river running through the middle of Nairobi's Sinai slum. She said 75 bodies were recovered on Monday.

Residents were searching the river themselves yesterday, wading through the sewage and charred bodies with only plastic gloves for protection. They used sticks to prod the bottom of the river, feeling for the bodies.

The head of the state-owned Kenya Pipeline Company said the explosion was caused by an over-pressurised pipeline. The fuel leaked out into a sewer and the river running through the slum and then ignited.

Kenyan media said more than 100 people died and a similar number were taken to hospital, but police said it was difficult to establish the exact number of dead.

Residents said petrol spilled from the fuel depot and ran into a sewage dyke that runs under the slum.

"So far we have taken 75 bodies to the mortuary, but are still searching for more," Wilfred Mbithi, an assistant commissioner of police coordinating the search said.

Police spokesman Charles Owino said the fire was started by a cigarette butt tossed onto the dyke, which opens into a small river.

Local television channels aired images of smouldering skeletons as the fire raged through the slum.

Children in school uniform ran in all directions, badly burnt residents staggered in a daze and the smell of smoke and burning flesh filled the air.

Prime Minister Raila Odinga visited the scene of the fire. He wiped tears after visiting the injured in hospital.

President Mwai Kibaki also visited patients with severe burns at the country's largest public hospital.

Police said some residents of the slum were killed while trying to scoop up the fuel from the pipeline.