Nigeria building collapses, two dead

A two-story building collapsed in Nigeria’s capital city of Abuja late on Wednesday, killing at least two people and injuring dozens, the city’s emergency agency said.

Thirty-seven people were rescued from beneath the rubble, and evacuated for treatment, Abbas Idris, head of the emergency agency, told reporters on Thursday.

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“We are now in ground zero in the rescue operations, and we have not gotten any additional person under the rubble,” he added.

The building, which was used for both residential and commercial purposes, was located in Abuja’s downtown Garki area. It collapsed at around 11 p.m.

Investigations into the cause of the collapse would start immediately, Idris said.

“We helped to bring out some people. Two were not breathing. Over 20 people have been removed from the rubble,” Yakubu Inuwa, a trader at a neighboring building, told Reuters.

Building collapses are frequent in Africa’s most populous country, where regulations are poorly enforced and construction materials are often substandard.

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