Children killed and trapped in Nigeria

A number of children have died and more than 100 others are trapped after a school building collapsed in Nigeria’s central Plateau state, local officials say.

Saint Academy in the state capital Jos caved in while students were in class on Friday morning.

Trapped pupils were calling for help from under the rubble, AFP reported, with parents frantically searching for their children.

The National Emergency Management Agency (Nema) said “the exact number of deaths is still being confirmed”. Media reports say at least 17 students were killed.

In a post on X, Nema said more than 40 trapped students were rescued and taken to local hospitals.

Nigeria’s Punch newspaper reported 17 dead while the AFP news agency quoted Red Cross spokesman Nuruddeen Hussain Magaji as saying 21 people were killed.

The school is believed to have more than 1,000 pupils.

Local resident, Abel Fuandai, told the BBC that his friend’s son had been killed and said “the scale of the tragedy is frightening”.

He said rescue workers and emergency officials were racing to save those trapped and using excavators to dig through the rubble.

The cause of the collapse is not known but residents said it came after three days of heavy rains in Plateau.

Speaking from hospital, injured student Wulliya Ibrahim told AFP: “I entered the class not more than five minutes, when I heard a sound, and the next thing is I found myself here.

“We are many in the class, we are writing our exams,” he said.

Resident Chika Obioha said he had seen a number of dead bodies and that dozens of people had been rescued.

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

There have been several major building collapses in Nigeria in recent years, with observers blaming a mix of bad workmanship, poor quality materials and corruption.

In 2021, at least 45 people were killed when a high-rise building under construction collapsed in a wealthy Lagos neighbourhood.