LAGOS: Five workers dead as building under construction collapses

The building under construction fell around 3:49 a.m. this morning in the Maryland neighbourhood of Lagos State, Nigeria.

The Lagos State Emergency Management Agency (LASEMA) chief, Olufemi Damilola Oke-Osanyintolu, confirmed the development in a statement.

According to an emergency responder, five adult males were rescued alive from the building collapse site.

“The Agency responded to the above incident and discovered that a set of three terraces under construction had collapsed.

“Search and rescue operations began immediately. Five adult males were recovered dead while 4 adult males were rescued alive, and 1 adult male trapped under the rubble was rescued alive by the LASEMA and the Lagos State Fire Service.

“All the men were site workers. They received pre-hospital care on location before being transported to the hospital while the State Environmental Health Monitoring Unit (SEHMU) was contacted for the remains of the four fatalities,” the statement read.

“LASEMA’s excavator has been deployed to accelerate the search and rescue operations.”

Building collapses have recurred in Lagos in recent weeks, exacerbated by flooding.

Earlier in July, seven people were saved after a two-story structure that fell in the Mushin district of the state.

In May, ten other people were saved after a structure caved-in in the state’s Isale Eko district.

Away from Lagos, a school collapsed in the Jos North Local Government Area of Plateau State earlier in July, killing 22 people and injuring 132 others.