Update : One Dead, Four Rescued Under Abuja Collapsed Shopping Mall

 

At least one person has been confirmed dead, two still stuck in the rubble, and four rescued from a collapsed shopping mall in Kubwa, a satellite town in Abuja.

how the mall, which is under construction, crumbled on Thursday night.

It was gathered that about six workers and a security guard, were within the premises of the mall when the incident occurred.

So far, four of the victims have been rescued with varying degrees of injury by officials of the Federal Capital Development Authority (FCDA), currently searching the ruins for one other persons reportedly stuck in the building

“Sadly, around 11 p.m. yesterday, we got a call that a building had collapsed and we rushed here to commence evacuation. It is very painful. The building was approved as a shopping mall, after the approval, the owner started altering it.

“The owner added some blocks to it, that is why the load became very heavy,” Ikharo Attah, an aide to the FCT Minister, disclosed.

He said the building was a two-storey building which had fallen flat and had been completed but the tiling work was ongoing before the incident.

Mr Attah, who is also the chairman of FCT Minister’s task force team, said his office will commence testing on the collapsed building and others in the area to ascertain the quality of materials used.

Afeez Olayinka, who was almost covered by the rubble, was among the three lucky victims that merely suffered minor injuries.

Mr Olayinka, an artisan, was awake when the building collapsed. He said he and one other person were within the building but not at the innermost part of it when the incident happened.

“The thing happened around 11:30, in the evening, we’ve entered inside to sleep already when the building collapsed. We were seven in number in the building. Five were already asleep while two of us were still working in the compound.

“When the thing happened, I noticed that the thing did not press me down much. So, I escaped with the other person. When I stood up from where I was, I saw a light through an opening, and I traced it till I got out.

Later on, we started hearing people’s voices,” he told journalists as FCDA officials continued to curb the rubble for the remaining two victims.