By Rafiu Ajakaye
LAGOS Nigeria (AA): At least ten people have been confirmed dead, many trapped, and 40 others rescued alive from debris of a school building that collapsed on Wednesday morning in Nigeria’s southwestern Lagos city, a disaster management official said.
“[…] figures from various organizations that took part in the operation has indicated that 37 people were rescued alive and 8 were recovered dead,” Ibrahim Farinloye, regional head of the National Emergency Management Agency, told Anadolu Agency.
Earlier, Akinwunmi Ambode, governor of the Lagos State, told reporters: “We have rescued about 25 people and some are already dead.”
Without specifying the number, he said that most of the dead were schoolchildren.
Search and rescue at the site after a schoolhouse on Lagos Island collapsed on March 13, 2019 in Lagos, Nigeria. (Photo by Vanessa Ade – Anadolu Agency )
The school, which was on the top floor of the four-storey building in Ita Faji on Lagos Island, had more than 100 pupils.
The governor said the building wasn’t approved for a school but for a residential purpose and the building was already marked for demolition because of structural defects.
The two-story kindergarten building of a school on Lagos Island had caved in at about 10 a.m. local time (0900GMT).
Building collapse is not uncommon in Nigeria owing to what officials called substandard materials and non-adherence to regulations.
At least 115 persons — including 84 foreigners — died in a similar building collapse in 2014 at a popular church in Lagos.
Additional report by The Muslim News
[Photo: Search and rescue team members and locals are trying to rescue a girl trapped under the rubbles of a collapsed three-story schoolhouse on Lagos Island on March 13, 2019 in Lagos, Nigeria. Photographer: Vanessa Ade/AA]
