FIVE people, including an elderly woman aged 72, were yesterday rescued from a three-storey building that collapsed at 5, Swamp Street, off Odunfa Street, Adeniyi Adele Road, Lagos Island. The building, according to officials of the Lagos State Fire Service and the Lagos State Emergency Management Agency (LASEMA), collapsed early Wednesday morning.
The old woman and a 15-year-old boy, whose identities were not known yet, were brought out of the rubles at about 1pm. They were rescued by emergency workers drafted to the scene.
Chairman of LASEMA, Michael Akindele, said his office received emergency call via 767 at 9am and that he immediately mobilised his men to the site. He said five people had so far been rescued alive, among them an elderly woman in her 70s.
Akindele said all relevant agencies involved in emergency operation were already on ground and that rescue operation was still ongoing, as at press time yesterday. He said the elderly woman who was badly injured is in stable condition.
Director, Lagos State Fire Service, Rasaq Fadipe, provided further insight into ongoing rescue operation. “People are still trapped, but search and rescue operation is on-going,” he said in a text message.
Some of the victims were said to have called family and friends with the aid of their cell phones around 11am. Abdullateef Olatunji, who lived in the house, said he noticed that the building was about to collapse, and allegedly raised the alarm that attracted some people to the house.
He revealed that more persons would have been trapped on the ground floor, and some were also upstairs and are still trapped. He explained that on the ground floor are a printing press, canteen, shop, film editor, barber, among others.
