A two-storey school collapsed in north-central Nigeria during morning classes on Friday, leaving 22 students dead in the incident, authorities said.
As many as 154 students were trapped under the rubble as the Saints Academy college in Plateau state's Busa Buji community collapsed shortly after they arrived for classes. Notably, many of these students were aged 15 or under.
Plateau police spokesman Alfred Alabo said that rescuers frantically searched rubble as over 100 students were feared to be trapped. However, of the 154 students, 132 were successfully rescued and sent to hospital for treatment.
Rescue and health workers were deployed at the scene immediately after the collapse, said Nigeria's National Emergency Management Agency.
“To ensure prompt medical attention, the government has instructed hospitals to prioritize treatment without documentation or payment,” Plateau state's Commissioner for Information Musa Ashoms said in a statement.
The state government blamed the school's "weak structure and location near a riverbank" as being the reason behind the collapse, urging schools facing similar issues to shut down.
Several dozens of villagers gathered near the school, some in fear and some in tears, as they came to offer help while excavators were trying to find students under the collapsed building's debris.
In the last two years, incidents of such building collapses have become increasingly common, with Nigeria being Africa's most populous country. Authorities have often blamed such disasters on a failure of enforcing building safety regulations and poor maintenance of infrastructure.
(With AP inputs)
