Abuja, Nov. 2 (BNA) The head of state emergency services said on Tuesday that at least six people have died in Nigeria’s commercial capital Lagos after the collapse of a high-rise building that was under construction.
Building collapses are frequent in Africa’s most populous country, where regulations are poorly enforced and building materials often substandard.
State official Olufimi Oke-Osaniintulu said search and rescue efforts had begun for survivors of Monday’s accident.
“Currently all the responders are on the ground as search and rescue continues,” Oki-Osanintolo said, adding that the death toll had now reached six, according to Reuters.
He said that four people were rescued alive, and three others were treated for minor injuries at the scene.
Witnesses say up to 100 people are missing after the luxury apartment building collapsed, trapping workers under a pile of rubble.
Rescue workers used excavators to sift through the rubble in the glare of generator-powered floodlights as piles of shattered concrete and twisted metal swept the site where the building once stood, while more workers watched.
President Muhammadu Buhari has called for rescue efforts to be intensified as emergency services, including hospitals, begin to operate.
The collapsed building was part of three towers being built by private developer Fourscore Homes, which in a client brochure promises to provide “a stress-free lifestyle, with a hotel touch.” The cheapest unit sold for $1.2 million.
Phone calls to numbers listed on Fourscore Homes and the main building contractor did not ring.
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