Live
Audio Only
At least nine were killed due to a building collapse in Nigeria’s Lagos which also held a private school. Residents are infuriated by the country's poor building regulations.
At least nine were killed in a building collapse in Lagos, Nigeria's largest city. Emergency services have called off the search for survivors as anger mounts over Nigeria’s horrible building regulations.
RELATED:
Widows Against Big Oil Impunity in Nigeria Take Shell to Court
The building also held a private school. Residents say the school had around 100 children. Rescuers were trying to find a register to determine the number of fatalities, an emergency official said. Nearly 50 people were rescued from the building Wednesday.
At the site of the collapse, people searched through the tangle of rubble and metal Thursday to find any belongings of their loved ones.
On Wednesday, one person was confirmed dead. More people have died after being taken to the hospital, Adesina Tiamiyu, the general manager of the Lagos State Emergency Management Agency, told reporters Thursday.
"We continued our work overnight and at about 3 a.m. we recovered the body of an adult male... and up till now we haven't recovered anybody (else)," he said. Around 37 people were rescued alive from the debris.
Lagos Governor Akinwuni Ambode, who visited the site hours after the building collapsed, said the school had been set up illegally and that buildings in the area had been undergoing structural testing prior to the accident.
Building collapses are frequent in Nigeria, where regulations are poorly enforced and construction materials are often substandard.
Locals, including a relative of a child who was killed, said there had been a number of building collapses in the area over the last few years. They said some buildings deemed by state government officials to be uninhabitable were renovated by landlords seeking rent.
Newsletter
