At least 16 students have died and several have been trapped this Friday in the partial collapse of a school in the state of Plateau in the center of Nigeria where tests were being carried out, the national rescue agency NEMA reported.
Some of the trapped victims were asking for help under the rubble of the center Saint Academy situated in If the capital of Plateau, where relatives came to look for their loved ones, an AFP correspondent noted, seeing five bodies in a hospital morgue and eleven bodies in another facility. According to him, all were wearing school uniforms.
The National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) had reported that aA two-story school collapsed while an undetermined number of teachers and dozens of high school students were teaching inside, leaving “several students” dead.
According to local media, the collapse occurred at around 8:30 a.m. local time (07:30 GMT), when many teachers and students were already in the classrooms.
“We heard a loud noise and ran outside only to see that the school building had collapsed (…) Many students and teachers remain trapped under the rubble.“, Peter Auta, a local resident who witnessed the events, told EFE by telephone.
“There were about 40 students in the building when the school collapsed.“I saw how they pulled out four motionless bodies from the rubble and took them away. I don’t know if they are dead or need to be resuscitated,” Auta added.
Teams from NEMA and Plateau State Emergency Management Agency (SEMA), among others, have rushed to the scene and are searching for survivors.
“We are already at the scene. Rescue operations are underway. The priority now is to rescue those who are trapped,” Samuel Abdu, executive secretary of SEMA, told EFE.
Meanwhile, rescued victims are being transported to hospitals by security forces and various organisations involved in search and rescue efforts.
Building collapses are common in Nigeria – Africa’s most populous country with more than 213 million inhabitants– a problem attributed to the use of low-quality construction materials and negligent inspections of buildings by the authorities.
In November 2021, at least 45 people were killed when a 21-story building under construction collapsed on the outskirts of Lagos, Nigeria’s largest city and economic capital.