(Lagos) A skyscraper under construction collapsed Monday in Lagos, the economic capital of Nigeria, killing at least three people and injuring several, but the toll could greatly increase, dozens of workers still trapped under the rubble.
This building located on one of the most chic avenues in Lagos collapsed just before 3 p.m. (10 a.m. Montreal time) when dozens of workers were on the site.
“We took out two new bodies, so there are three dead so far, and three people left alive, but the rescue operation is still underway,” Ibrahim Farinloyer, of the National Agency for Human Rights, told AFP. emergency management (NEMA).
Around the mountain of rubble more than ten meters high, workers, their skin covered with dust, wandered in fright, their eyes haggard.
At least five of them told AFP that more than 40 people were working in the building when it collapsed.
“I was working downstairs, that’s why I saved my life,” said Taiwo Sule, 21, her voice still shaking.
“I climbed on the motte, and I saw five dead bodies, we tried to carry them, but we were made to come down. Look at my hands, they are full of blood, ”says the young man in anger, his red palms turned to the sky.
Peter Ajagbe, a 26-year-old worker, his body gray with dust, claims to have “seen at least ten bodies” on the mountain of rubble. “One of my colleagues is dead. Those with whom I was having lunch again this morning are dead, ”he said in despair.
“But where is the help?
A little further on, a crowd of several hundred people gathered around the construction site. Some launching to the few authorities present on the spot: “But where is the help? Why is it taking so long? “.
At least two hours after the collapse, a monster traffic jam prevented the emergency services and the teams responsible for clearing the rubble from accessing the site.
Only a few ambulances were visible, where two injured were receiving first aid, AFP journalists noted.
At around 5 p.m. local time, a small clearing machine had finally reached the site and was struggling to remove the first rubble. Dozens of soldiers had been deployed to calm and keep the crowd away for security reasons.
Around the mountain of rubble, two buildings under construction, similar to the one that collapsed, still stand.
On the spot, the police said they did not yet know the cause of the collapse.
Building collapses are a frequent tragedy in Nigeria, Africa’s most populous country, where millions of people live in dilapidated buildings and construction laws are routinely flouted.
A few dozen meters from the collapsed building, several workers continued to work, as if nothing had happened, on neighboring construction sites, where luxury buildings will soon emerge from the ground. All on simple bamboo scaffolding, without any protective equipment.
Some workers, in thongs, seem barely out of adolescence.