Five workers lost their lives when a building under construction collapsed early Thursday morning at 13, Wilson Mba Street, Arowojobe Estate, Maryland, Lagos. The incident occurred at 3:49am in the Maryland area of Lagos State, Nigeria.
Olufemi Damilola Oke-Osanyintolu, the head of the Lagos State Emergency Management Agency (LASEMA), confirmed the tragedy in a statement. He reported that five adult males were rescued alive from the 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 four adult males were rescued alive. Additionally, one adult male trapped under the rubble was rescued alive by LASEMA and the Lagos State Fire Service,” the statement read.
“All the men were site workers. They received pre-hospital care on location before being transported to the hospital. The State Environmental Health Monitoring Unit (SEHMU) was contacted for the remains of the fatalities. LASEMA’s excavator has been deployed to accelerate the search and rescue operations.”
Building collapses have been a recurring issue in Lagos, exacerbated by recent flooding. Earlier in July, seven people were rescued from a collapsed two-storey building in the Mushin area, and ten others were saved from a building collapse in the Isale Eko area in May.
Beyond Lagos, a tragic incident in Jos North Local Government Area of Plateau State earlier in July resulted in the deaths of 22 individuals and injuries to 132 others when a school building collapsed.