School collapses in Nigeria, many inside
LAGOS: A three-story building collapsed in Nigeria on Wednesday with scores of school children thought to be inside, setting off frantic rescue efforts in the country’s crowded commercial capital. An emergency management official said more than 40 people had been found but it was not yet clear how many died.
Associated Press video showed rescuers carrying several dustcovered, stunned-looking children from the rubble, to cheers from hundreds of people who rushed to the scene. But the crowd quieted as others were pulled out and slung over people’s shoulders, unmoving.
The children were hurried through the crowd to ambulances. One man pressed his hands to a passing survivor’s head in blessing.
Rescue efforts unfolded in the densely populated neighborhood in Lagos, Nigeria’s commercial capital and a city of some 20 million people. More equipment was brought in as nightfall approached. As many as 100 children had been in the primary school on the building’s top floor, some witnesses said.
More than 40 people had been found “but for now I am not in a position to give the number of dead,” Shina Tiamiyu, general manager of the Lagos State Emergency Management Agency, said.
It was not immediately clear why the building collapsed. Such disasters are all too common in Nigeria, where new construction often goes up without regulatory oversight and floors are added to already unstable buildings. Lagos state Governor Akinwunmi Ambode said buildings in the neighbourhood, Ita Faji, should have undergone integrity tests but landlords resisted. AP