Seven yet-to-be-identified persons have lost their lives on Sunday when a three-storey building still under construction collapsed in the Obalende area of Lagos State while 10 other victims were rescued by emergency responders, who raced to the scene of the incident.

Confirming the incident, the Director-General, Lagos State Emergency Management Agency, Olufemi Oke-Osanyintolu, said the rescued victims were taken to hospital for treatment, adding that the corpses had been evacuated from the scene of the incident.

He said; “Upon arrival at the incident scene, a three-storey building under construction was discovered to have collapsed. The cause of the collapse has yet to be ascertained, but efforts are presently ongoing by the LASEMA Response Team and other responders to salvage the situation.

“As of 5.40pm, a total of eight men have been extricated alive by the LASEMA Response Team and other stakeholders, and have been attended to and quickly transferred to the Lagos Island General Hospital by LASEMA paramedics for further medical attention.

“Four people, made up of three males and one female, have so far been recovered dead and handed over to the SEHMU at the incident scene. A recovery operation is still ongoing.”

However, the acting Zonal Coordinator, South-West Zonal Office, National Emergency Management Agency, Mr Ibrahim Farinloye, in an update, said the corpses of six persons were removed from the rubble, while 10 other injured persons were rescued.

People who were killed included labourers who were working on the third floor of the building, which had earlier been sealed off by the Lagos State Building Control Agency.

A source said that despite the sealing off of the building by LASBCA, the workers used a roofing sheet to shield the site to continue the work.

Another account by some rescued victims was that some of the labourers, said to be Muslims, were observing prayers when the tragedy struck.

The Head, Public Affairs, Lagos State Emergency Management Agency, Nosa Okunbor, updated the Press in a statement which partly reads;

 “Following the collapsed building at No. 60 Odo Street, Obalende, in the Eti-Osa LCDA, LASEMA activated the state’s emergency response plan with the latest update being that 10 persons were treated with minor injuries; and 10 severely injured persons were removed from the debris, tended and transferred to hospital for further treatment.

“Records indicate that the seven fatalities, made up of six men and one woman, have also been recovered and promptly handed over to SEHMU.

“Further on-site investigation revealed that a portion of the collapsed building said to be occupied by some of the workers had been sealed off by the Lagos State Building Control Agency for obvious reasons of contravention.

“It was also revealed that the owner of the said structure had commenced clandestine operations in the wee hours of Sunday, an illegal action that directly resulted in this unfortunate incident.

“According to eyewitnesses, the casting of the third floor was in progress when the building suddenly collapsed at the illegal construction site.”

Mr Idris Salako, the Commissioner for Physical Planning and Urban Development, later visited the scene of the collapse and inspected other adjoining buildings in the area for an on-the-spot assessment, and promised to get to the root of the incident.