Rescue and recovery efforts end at Lagos site of collapsed building

World Today

Rescue and recovery efforts end at Lagos site of collapsed building

Rescue-and-recovery efforts ended in Nigeria at the site of a collapsed building in Lagos. At least nine are dead, including a number of children whose private school was in the building. Deji Badmus reports from Lagos.

It’s all quiet at the site of the collapsed building.

After working through the night and recovering just one dead body, emergency officials said the rescue and recovery operation was now effectively over.

Residents believed victims were still trapped beneath the rubble so emergency officials cleared the area of debris to remove any doubt anyone was trapped.

A truck would later arrive to begin the evacuation of the rubble from the site.

The government has not released an official casualty figure. Lagos state Gov Akinwunmi Ambode said the building was classified as residential and the private school was operating illegally on the top two floors.

The collapsed building was slated for demolition. An investigation is underway into why people were still occupying it.

Residents in the community are concerned and angry that another building had to collapse to bring attention to a long standing problem – the construction of buildings which don’t conform to government building codes and are not safe.

If nothing serious is done after this incident, it might not be too long belong another building goes down in this community.