No fewer than 4 persons are believed to have died in a 3-storey building collapse in Jos city, the Plateau state capital, Monday evening.
The building housed Nalele pharmacy with the 2nd and 3r floors serving as residential.
As at 9:30pm, when our correspondent left the scene of the incident, rescue workers of the Road Safety Corps, the Red Cross and Islamic first aid groups were still seen excavating the collapsed building, recovering dead bodies and evacuating the victims.
The building trapped many people, including women and children.
A member of the Plateau STATE Assembly, Hon. Ibrahim Baba Hassan, who was at the scene of the incident, confirmed that four persons were recovered dead, while three others were injured and hospitalised.
“I have personally seen four corpses out of the seven recovered.
“Three others were alive and taken to hospital.
“Professional rescue workers are doing their best to evacuate those trapped from the debris of the collapsed building, hoping to recover more.
“It is unfortunate that the storey building was built on an old structure, and the materials used in building it were substandard,” he said.
Also, the North Central zone coordinator of National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA), Mr. Eugene Nyelong confirmed the incident.
“I received a distress call that a building collapsed and I deployed our personnel and also called men of the fire service and civil defence to mobilise to the scene.
“I cannot at the moment confirm how many casualties but our men are there trying to excavate,” he stated.
Blueprint learnt that the victims were taken to Plateau state specialist hospital.
