A young man was confirmed dead, 14 injured and several others trapped in a collapse building in Lagos yesterday.
The three-storey old building is situated along Agoro Street, behind College of Medicine, Idi Araba, Surulere, Lagos.
The incident, according to an eyewitness, happened around 2 pm, when activities were going on in and around the building.
The young man, whose name was not made available as at press time, was said to have been in one of the rooms before suddenly, the dilapidated building came down with full force, thereby trapping him and before rescue could come, he had died.
One of the injured persons included a woman with her newborn baby. The eyewitness said but for the quick interventions of neighbours and passers-by, the woman and her baby would have been trapped.
As at the time THISDAY visited the scene of the collapse building, rescue workers included officials of Red Cross Society, Nigeria Police, Fire Service, Lagos State Emergency Management Agency (LASEMA), and passers-by were busy rescuing the remaining trapped people, while 14 people so far rescued had been taken to the hospital.
In another incident, a section of the Ajegunle General Hospital that was under construction also collapsed injuring two workers on the site, who were immediately admitted for treatment in the hospital.
In the Ajegunle incident, the site engineer, Mr. Jide Olayiwola confirmed the collapse and said it was a minor accident.
Olayiwola said the injured had been discharged after treatment.
He said it was the prop holding the decking of a section of the building under construction that snapped and efforts were being intensified to repair the collapsed area.
Mar252009