Some students were hospitalised on Thursday after sustaining injuries during the evacuation from a three-storey building housing Yemco Daycare Nursery, Primary and Comprehensive College, which collapsed on Adu Street, Aguda, in the Ogba area of Lagos State.
PUNCH Metro learnt during a visit to the scene of the incident that the structure caved in at about 11am.
It was gathered that the students were observing their activities when some residents raised the alarm after sighting a sudden crack in the wall of the building.
The staff of the school, who were notified of the development, immediately began evacuating the students from the building.
Speaking with our correspondent, a resident, Femi Aderoju, said the building collapsed shortly after the students had been moved out.
Aderoju said, “A fashion designer who has a shop close to the street saw a sudden crack on the wall of the school, and that prompted him to raise the alarm.
“When we heard him calling on the staff of the school to notify them of what happened, we also joined him to compel them to quickly evacuate.
“That was how the teachers and the students were hurried out of the school premises. The evacuation was within five to seven minutes.”
Another resident, Dada Philips, said the emergency evacuation caused the students to panic and stampede one another while rushing out of the building.
He added that the stampede resulted in a series of injuries.
“The students were not prepared for such an emergency. So the moment they were asked to move out of the building in such panic mode, they started rushing out and, in the process, began climbing on one another.
“This caused some of them to sustain serious injuries. Some of their parents, who were alerted, rushed down to the scene and later took their children to the hospital for treatment,” he said.
Efforts to speak with the officials of the school found at the scene were unsuccessful as they declined to speak about the incident.
One of them, who eventually gave our correspondent an audience on the condition of anonymity, said a head count was conducted to be sure no student was left in the building.
“Shortly after moving them out of the building, we immediately conducted a head count to be sure no one was left behind.
“Some of us did not even remember to pick up our belongings before the building collapsed. We were just so concerned about the safety of the children,” the staff member disclosed.
The school official, however, remained silent on the number of students that were injured due to the stampede.
A resident, known simply as Folake, said the sound of the collapse made her rush out of her apartment.
“I thought it was a truck that rammed into our transformer, as we usually experience in this community. It was when I stepped out that I saw a cloud of dust on the street.
“I also saw some parents rushing to the scene out of fear that their children might have been trapped under the rubble,” the resident explained.
Our correspondent, however, gathered from another resident, Ajibola Salami, that renovation was ongoing on the premises before the building collapsed.
He said this might have resulted in the crack and the eventual collapse of the building.
“The building never showed signs of distress before the incident. But it could be as a result of the ongoing renovation on the ground floor of the building.
“That may have resulted in the crack that was seen on the wall. The construction workers were there before the collapse,” Salami said.
Our correspondent also observed the presence of security operatives, officials of the Lagos State Fire and Rescue Service, the Lagos State Building Control Agency, and the Lagos State Neighbourhood Safety Corps.
Meanwhile, residents occupying a two-storey building, which shared the same premises as the collapsed structure, were seen evacuating the building on the order of LASBCA officials, who were later seen sealing the premises.
PUNCH Metro reported a similar incident in January, when students of Odokekere High School in Ikorodu narrowly escaped death after a bungalow classroom block collapsed.
Punchng
