Many students feared dead as school building collapses in Plateau

A two-storey school building in Plateau State collapsed yesterday leaving many students and teachers trapped with many of them feared dead.

Weekend Trust reports that the school, Saint Academy located at the Busa Buji community in Jos North Local Government Area of the state collapsed at about 11 am when many of the students and teachers were already in classes for their ongoing examinations.

As of 2pm on Friday, 12 bodies of the students were so far recovered dead from the rubbles while many others were rescued with various degrees of injuries.

Weekend Trust reports that seven bodies of the students were received at Our Lady of Apostles (OLA) hospital; four at Bingham University Teaching Hospital (BUTH) and one body received at Plateau Specialist Hospital.

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The Chief Medical Director (CMD) of the Plateau Specialist Hospital, Prof Chris Yilgwan, said 38 casualties were brought to the hospital as of 2pm, adding that three of the casualties have been confirmed dead while those with injuries were being attended to.

He however said the casualties figure could not be confirmed as of the time of filing this report as ambulances kept bringing victims from the collapsed building site. 

Weekend Trust learnt that the block that collapsed in the school are those hosting SS1, SS2 and SS3 students. The students and teachers were completely trapped under the rubbles with rescue operations still ongoing by emergency responders.

Unspecified numbers of students of the other two blocks in the school however escaped  as the part of their block was still standing. 

The incident occurred around 11 am when SS3 students were writing their final examinations.

As of the time of filing this report, rescue operations were still ongoing by officials from the Federal Fire Service, State Emergency Management Agency and the Federal Road Safety Corps.

The excavation of the site and the rescue operations are likely to continue into the night.

Our correspondents report that the news of the collapsed building jolted the community as distraught residents and parents who had their wards in the school besieged the area to ascertain the fate of their children.

While Weekend Trust could not independently verify the number of school children and staff trapped, sources around the scene of the incident estimated that more than 100 students were trapped.