Four die as building collapses on pupils

Scores of children may have been killed as a storey building in an Islamic school collapsed in Jos, the Plateau State capital on Sunday.

Though the North Central Coordinator of National Emergency Management Agency, Mr. Muhammed Abdulsalami, told our correspondent that only four of the pupils died, residents of the area insisted that the casualty figure was higher going by the number of pupils in the school when the building collapsed.
Abdulsalami on Sunday said that four people were killed and five others were wounded in the tragic incident.

He said that the tragedy occurred at Abu Naib Islamic School along Gero Road in Bukuru in Jos South Local Government Area of Plateau State while the children were receiving Islamic lectures on Sunday evening.

However, residents said that more people were killed than the figure given by NEMA.

Abdulsalami said, “So far, four children have been confirmed dead while five others have sustained injuries. The injured have been taken to the specialists’ hospital. Our men are still carrying out the rescue mission and by tomorrow (today) I will give you the details.”

But a resident of the area, Alhaji Danlami Muhammad, said the figure could be higher given the number of pupils in the building at the time of the collapse.

He said, “I cannot give details of the casualties as at now because we are still trying to rescue them.”

Muhammad said about 40 children were inside the building when it collapsed, adding that, “The number could have been more than this but for the rainfall that prevented some of the children from attending the lecture.”

He said the School was a secondary school but used on weekends to tutor children on Islamic studies.

Source: punch