(GoRealNewsNow.com) – In an unimaginable tragedy, at least 16 died, and hundreds were trapped under rubble while taking exams when Saint Academy school in central Nigeria suddenly collapsed.
Watch the video further down this post.
An Agence France-Presse (AFP) reporter witnessed five dead bodies in one hospital morgue and eleven others in a separate one, all in school uniforms.
“Trapped children were heard crying for help under the rubble and mechanical diggers tried to rescue the victims while parents desperately looked for their kids,” CBS News tweeted alongside a video of the collapsed structure.
While the footage depicted a scene of chaos with people gathered around the collapsed school, parts of the school still appeared intact, and individuals were using shovels and pickaxes to clear debris.
According to the video’s subtitles, the cause of the collapse remained unknown, but locals attributed it to “three days of heavy rains.”
Moreover, the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) in Nigeria reported via X that “over 40 trapped students” had been rescued and hospitalized.
“The [search and rescue] operation has now ended, with the site cleared and secured. Some students have been treated and discharged, while 30 remain hospitalized, with 2 in intensive care,” NEMA tweeted.
NEMA also acknowledged casualties among students without providing an official count.
“I entered the class not more than five minutes, when I heard a sound, and the next thing is I found myself here,” recounted Wulliya Ibrahim, a student hospitalized after the incident.
“We are many in the class, we are writing our exams,” he added.
At least 16 students were killed on Friday when a school in Nigeria's Plateau State collapsed as they were taking exams. Trapped children were heard crying for help under the rubble and mechanical diggers tried to rescue the victims while parents desperately looked for their kids pic.twitter.com/kMvLuAIHMK
— CBS News (@CBSNews) July 12, 2024
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