Thirty-nine people were killed and more than 80 others injured in an explosion at Venezuela's biggest oil refinery on Saturday.

Balls of fire could be seen in the sky over the Amuray refinery as firefighters struggled to contain the blaze.

Almost 20 hours later flames were still reaching nearly 100ft and the heat from them could be felt as far as 300m away.

The explosion shattered walls of nearby buildings, ripped windows from homes and left the surrounding streets covered in rubble and twisted scraps of metal.

President Hugo Chavez declared three days of mourning and ordered an investigation into the cause of the explosion.