20 dead, mostly children, in Nigeria building collapse

Authorities in Nigeria say 20 people are confirmed dead in the school building that collapsed on Wednesday, and most of them are children.

Lagos State Health Commissioner Jide Idris said that 43 other people were rescued alive.

Officials have said the three-storey residential building had been marked for demolition and that the school was operating illegally on the top two floors.

Rescue crews halted their search on Thursday, to the anger of some at the scene, saying they had reached the building’s foundation without finding any other victims. Building collapses are tragically common in Nigeria, where building regulations are routinely flouted.

In September 2014, 116 people died — 84 of them South Africans — when a six-storey guesthouse collapsed at the Lagos church complex of celebrity televangelist TB Joshua.

An inquiry found extra floors had been added without planning permission.

In 2016, at least 60 people were killed when the roof collapsed at a church in Uyo, the capital of Akwa Ibom state, in the south.

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