By MOHAMMED MOMOH

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At least six people have died in Nigeria’s commercial hub of Lagos after a 21-storey building under construction collapsed on Monday.

Four people were rescued alive in search and rescue operations that intensified into the night at the Gerald Road site in Ikoyi. Three more were treated for minor injuries at the site.

According to officials, about 50 people are feared trapped in the rubble.

The Lagos State Emergency Management Agency (Lasema) and the National Emergency Management Agency (Nema) led the rescue efforts.

Mr Femi Oke-Osanyintolu, the General Manager of Lasema, said: “Many workers are trapped under the rubble.”

Nema officials said they had established contact with some of the victims trapped in the building.

Mr Ibrahim Farinloye, the Nema Coordinator, South West, said that one of the victims spoke to his relatives.

The victim, he said, explained that some workers gathered at the muster point when the building collapsed.

Rescuers carry a worker at the site of a collapsed 21-story building in Ikoyi, Lagos, Nigeria on November 1, 2021. PHOTO | MOHAMMED MOMOH

Rescue efforts

Rescue workers used excavators to sift rubble in the glare of floodlights powered by generators as heaps of shattered concrete and twisted metal engulfed the site where the building once stood, as more workers watched.

President Muhammadu Buhari condoled with the families who lost loved ones and called for rescue efforts to be stepped up as emergency services, including hospitals, swing into action.

Lagos State Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu appealed for calm.

One of the workers who escaped with minor injuries, Mr Wisdom John, 28, said he was on the ground floor when the building began to collapse.

“We were more than 50 working today and the manager too,” he said, sitting in an ambulance receiving treatment for minor cuts. “We just ran out.”

Dozens of angry local residents and workers had gathered to help out soon after the collapse, many crying and voicing frustration over the slow pace of the rescue efforts.

The Lagos State police commissioner, Mr Hakeem Odumosu, said it was still too early to determine the cause of the collapse.

The collapsed building was part of three towers being built by private developer Fourscore Homes, which promised in a client brochure to provide “a stress-free lifestyle, complete with a hotel flair”. The cheapest unit was selling for $1.2 million.

- Additional reporting by Reuters