2024-07-13 09:43:54
A two-storey school building collapsed during morning classes on Friday in north-central Nigeria, killing several students and trapping others who were heard crying for help under the rubble, a rescue agency and witnesses said.
The collapse of the building left about 120 students and teachers trapped, and parents began a desperate search for their children at Saint Academy in Jos, northern Plateau State, after the building fell on students taking exams.
According to the agency, it is carrying out “search and rescue operations,” while a local TV channel reported that 12 people were killed in the accident.
Authorities have yet to confirm the number of students and teachers killed at Saints Academy in the Busa Buji area of Plateau State, but television stations reported that 26 people were being treated in addition to the dead, citing an eyewitness account at a nearby hospital.
Nigeria’s National Emergency Management Agency said rescue workers, health workers and security forces were at the scene, and that “several students” were killed.
“About 120 people are trapped and many have been evacuated. To ensure prompt medical care, the government has instructed hospitals to prioritize the treatment of those injured, without providing documents or payment,” Plateau Commissioner for Information Moses Ashoms said in a statement.
The state government blamed the tragedy on the school’s “weak structure and location near the river bank” and urged schools facing similar problems to close.
Dozens of villagers gathered near the school, some crying and others offering help, as excavators combed through the rubble.
Building collapses have become common in Nigeria, Africa’s most populous country, with more than a dozen such incidents recorded in the past two years.
Authorities often blame such disasters on failure to enforce building safety regulations and poor maintenance.
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2024-07-13 09:43:54