Nigerian building collapse kills 16

Rescue workers searched through the rubble of a collapsed four-storey apartment building in Nigeria’s largest city today, pulling at least 16 bodies and dozens of survivors out of a mangle of debris.

Police beat back surging crowds searching for missing loved ones, and Lagos state Gov. Bola Tinubu vowed to find and prosecute those responsible for the apparently shoddy construction which brought down the building last night in Lagos.

The building’s 36 apartments were home to up to 180 people, and there were several businesses on the ground floor.

It was reduced to a two-storey pile of rubble from which twisted wires and concrete beams protruded.

Ripped mattresses, smashed sofas, children’s books and broken plates littered a dusty, chaotic scene.

By nightfall, at least two trapped people could be heard shouting from inside what was left of the building.

Volunteers dug into the debris with their bare hands to try to get them out.

With no floodlights and power out in the neighbourhood, a construction company withdrew a crane and two mechanical diggers from the site.

“There was a sound like lightning,” 27-year-old survivor Alaba Odedino said, describing how the building collapsed while she was at a hair salon underneath it and a block of cement fell on her leg, but she managed to escape. “I ran outside. There was huge smoke … I couldn’t see anything.”

Red Cross official Timothy Oladene said at least 16 people were killed and 37 other wounded, most caked with dust, were rescued and sent by ambulance to hospitals across the city.

The bodies of two children, their faces covered in dirt and blood, were among those hauled out by rescue workers.

Gbenga Bodunsin, an environmental health officer in Lagos, said he had complained about the building when it was constructed. He said it was built over a drain or sewage system and was only supposed to be two floors high.

“We called it the Titanic when it was built two or three years ago,” Bodunsin said.

Prince Oniru, an infrastructure adviser to the Lagos state government, said the building was weak and blamed those who built it. “The material used in the construction was very poor,” he said.

Tinubu said authorities would prosecute those responsible.

“The developer cannot run away. He has property in Lagos,” Tinubu told a gathering crowd at the site. “The government will seize it and prosecute him.”

Oladene said power went out in the Ebute-Meta district yesterday evening and volunteers worked though the night with candles and flashlights.

By this morning, police kept back thousands of people who crowded around the building looking for loved ones and picking through the rubble. The crowds cheered as a woman was brought out alive.

Oladene said a Red Cross employee was among those trapped inside.

“We have rescued his wife and two children but the man is still inside,” Oladene said. “We will be here until we find the last person.”

Three cranes worked to lift larger pieces of rubble.

Oladene expressed concern about security at the site and said his mobile phone had already been stolen and thieves had pickpocketed other rescue workers. Because crime in the city is so bad, most residents stay home at night.

“It’s essential to rescue as many people as possible before dark,” Oladene said, as police beat back people pressing forward to identify a body being hauled out.

Tears streamed down the faces of many in the crowd. One woman, 36-year-old Fatima Abdullah, said she was looking for her mother.

“I’ve been waiting all night,” she said. “I can’t find my mother.”

One man, 37-year-old Olukayode Toyoba, said a hospital had denied his three injured children treatment until a neighbour offered to pay for their medical expenses. He owned a hair salon that was crushed, and was looking for his missing wife.

Another man, 34-year-old Tiawa Azeez, picked through the debris with a knife and a pair of pliers, trying to get rescue workers to dig up a section where he thought his brother had been buried.

“It’s sinking and they are inside,” he said, referring to the weight of some 100 people standing on top of the rubble.

In late March, the top of one of Lagos’ tallest buildings slid off in a storm, and falling debris killed at least two people. About nine stories of the 21-storey Nigerian Industrial Development Bank crumbled and fell during a heavy downpour. There was a fire in the building two days before.