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Destruction in Lagos: people search for the buried construction workers in the rubble
Photo: PIUS UTOMI EKPEI / AFP
When a 21-storey building shell collapsed in the West African state of Nigeria, several people were buried.
Most of them are construction workers, said Ibrahim Farinloye, the acting head of civil protection, in the evening.
At least three of them were found alive at the scene of the accident in the economic metropolis of Lagos.
One reported to a local TV station that around 50 people were in the shell at the time of the accident.
The exact number of victims is not known.
As AFP correspondents report, workers and residents tried to free those affected from the rubble in the Ikoyi district.
The neighborhood is considered to be one of the more affluent residential and business districts in Lagos.
In some African metropolises, accidents caused by parts of buildings collapsing are not uncommon because building regulations are not always adhered to.
It was only in mid-March that a church ceiling collapsed in Uganda's capital Kampala and injured several people.
ptz / dpa / AFP / AP
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