Nigeria school collapse kills 16 students, traps others

At least 16 students were killed on Friday when a school in central Nigeria collapsed on pupils taking exams, an AFP correspondent said after visiting hospitals.

Officials have so far only said “several students” were killed when the Saint Academy school in Jos North district of Plateau State fell in on classrooms. But an AFP reporter saw five bodies in one hospital morgue and 11 in another. All were wearing school uniforms. Hospital officials did not comment.

Parents desperately looked for their children at the Saint Academy in Jos North district of Plateau State after the building fell in on students taking their exams, an AFP correspondent at the site said.

“A two-story building housing Saint Academy… in Busa Buji in Jos North Local Government Area of Plateau State collapsed this morning killing several students,” the National Emergency Management Agency said in a statement.

“NEMA and other critical stakeholders are presently carrying out Search and Rescue operations,” it said.

Officials did not give a precise toll, but a resident at the scene Chika Obioha told AFP he estimated eight people died at the site and dozens more had been injured.

“Everyone is helping out to see if we can rescue more people,” he said.

It was not immediately clear what caused the collapse but residents said it came after three days of heavy rains in Plateau.

Building collapses are fairly common in Africa’s most populous nation because of lax enforcement of building standards, negligence and use of low quality materials.