9 rescued, several trapped as building ‘under construction’ collapses in Abuja

Nine persons were on Monday rescued from the scene of a collapsed building at the Life Camp area of Abuja

Abass Idris, director-general of the FCT Emergency Management Agency, said those rescued persons were brought out of the debris at about 7:44 pm.

NAN reports that the building, which was said to be a hotel under construction, collapsed around 4pm, trapping an undisclosed number of workers.

Emeribe David, a superintendent of the Nigerian Fire Service, said a distress call was received at about 4pm.

He said his team joined other agencies in the operation to save the lives of the people trapped in the wreckage.

He identified some of the agencies as the FCT Emergency Management Agency, Federal Road Safety Corps, National Emergency Management Agency and security agencies, among others.

“Immediately the fire service received the call, we were deployed to the scene with a fire truck and ambulance crew to see what we can salvage, ” he said.

“We do not know the number of people that were trapped, but we will figure that out when we continue the operations in the morning.”

David added that all the agencies involved agreed to resume the rescue operation on Tuesday.