Many people including children were feared trapped on Wednesday (March 13) after a building containing a school collapsed in Nigeria’s commercial capital Lagos, an emergency agency spokesman said, as rescue efforts began.
Confirming the incident, Nigeria’s National Emergency Management Agency said in a Twitter post that rescue teams have been dispatched to the scene but gave no news of any casualties.
“#NEMA has received a sad story of building collapsed (sic) in Lagos, rescue officers have already been mobilized to the scene. More details to come…,” the post reads.
About 100 children are believed to have been in attendance at the school. Residents reported seven children had been rescued at the site.
Workers on top of the rubble shoveled debris away as thousands of people swarmed around the rescue site with others watching from rooftops and hundreds more packed into the surrounding streets, according to a Reuters reporter.
Nigeria has fallen victim to building collapses in recent years. This phenomenon has been blamed mainly on poor enforcement of building regulations and the use of substandard materials. In 2016, over 100 people were killed when a church came down in the city of Uyo in southeastern Nigeria.
