Collapse of a building in Nigeria: 36 dead and 9 survivors, according to a new official report
Steph Deschamps / November 4, 2021
A total of 36 people died when a 21-storey building under construction collapsed on Monday in Nigeria's economic capital Lagos, rescue services said on Thursday as they continued their search operations.
For now, 36 people - 33 men and 3 women - have been pulled from the rubble and there are nine survivors, Femi Oke-Osanyintolu, director general of the Lagos State Emergency Management Agency (Lasema), told AFP.
Dozens of workers were on the construction site located on one of the most chic avenues of Lagos, in the posh district of Ikoyi, when the skyscraper collapsed on Monday shortly before 15:00local time.
Families and relatives of the victims continued to wait for news on the outskirts of the site, three days after the disaster, while heavy equipment was deployed to help with the clearing operations.
An investigation was launched to determine the cause of the collapse of the building, which was reduced to a huge pile of rubble. The Lagos State Police say it is too early to determine the cause of the collapse, but an official of the National Emergency Management Agency (Nema) said there were violations during the construction of the building.
According to the building's plans, it was to be no more than 15 stories high. In addition, the Nigerian media reported that a company had pulled out of the project last year, fearing for the stability of the construction.