NIGERIA: Building collapse in Lagos kills 11 people

Record ID: 216179

  • Title: NIGERIA: Building collapse in Lagos kills 11 people
  • Date: 26th March 2009
  • Summary: LAGOS, NIGERIA (MARCH 24, 2009) (REUTERS) COLLAPSED BUILDING/PEOPLE SEARCHING FOR SURVIVORS RESIDENTS ARGUING OVER WHAT TO DO
  • Embargoed: 10th April 2009 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Nigeria
  • Country: Nigeria
  • Topics: Disasters / Accidents / Natural catastrophes
  • Reuters ID: LVADYI8JMCJR3J8O9M3MDZR8ULJQ
  • Story Text: A four-storey residential building collapsed in Nigeria's biggest city Lagos on Tuesday (March 24), killing 11 people, some of them children, a police spokesman and Reuters witnesses said.
    The residential building in the densely-populated Idi-Araba neighbourhood collapsed late on Tuesday. Its concrete floors concertinaed, trapping scores of people inside and sending twisted metal and rubble onto surrounding streets.
    Lagos police spokesman Frank Mba said 11 bodies had been recovered.
    A four-year old was the latest victim to be pulled from the rubble, Abdusalam Muhamed from the National Emergency Management Agency told Reuters.
    Earlier rescuer workers with the help of residents pulled bodies from the rubble, "People were inside and we started hearing the noise it made....We started panicking and before we know it the house had already came down,"
    one resident said.
    Construction workers from a nearby site brought excavators to try to lift the roof off the collapsed building and allow rescue workers to get inside.
    Substandard materials and disregard for building regulations mean such collapses are not uncommon in Africa's most populous nation, where infrastructure is old and poorly maintained.
    Twenty-eight people were killed in 2006 when a four-storey building collapsed in Lagos, although the death toll was high because people were using a restaurant, bar and shops on the ground floor at the time.
    At least three people were killed last July when a four-storey shopping centre under construction in the capital Abuja collapsed.
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