Death toll recorded during the building collapse, which happened Sunday, on Ibadan Street, in the Ebute Metta area of Lagos State, has increased to eight.
Recall that the old three-storey building collapsed at No. 24 Ibadan Street, off Herbert Macaulay Way, Ebute-Meta on Sunday night at about 10.56 p.m.
A statement by the National Emergency Management Agency confirmed the development on Monday,
“Two male additional bodies recovered, making eight deaths,” the acting coordinator, NEMA, Ibrahim Farinloye, said.
Observed at the scene of the incident as emergency responders put the recovered corpses in body bags.
The recovered corpses were deposited in some of the vehicles the emergency responders brought to the scene of the incident.
Thereafter, the corpses were taken to the mortuary.
MDB had reported that the NEMA officials, alongside other emergency response agencies including the Lagos State Fire and Rescue Service; Lagos State Emergency Management Agency, and the police, commenced a search and rescue operation immediately the three-storey building caved in late Sunday.
No fewer than 23 persons including children were said to have been rescued alive.
The occupants were said to be in their various apartments when the building suddenly collapsed and trapped some of them.
Farinloye, who had confirmed the death of five occupants, said the collapsed structure had been marked for demolition.
He said;
Another three-storey building, on Lagos Street, about 200 metres away from the current scene has shown signs of distress with part throwing pebbles and falling off.
The building had also been marked as distressed but the occupants were deviant.
However, the building has re-sealed and occupants evacuated by officers of Lagos State Buildings Control Agency.
Meanwhile, Permanent Secretary, LASEMA, Dr Olufemi Oke-Osanyintolu, in a statement late Sunday, had said some of the injured victims were rushed to the Lagos State University Teaching Hospital for urgent treatment.
