In the early hours of Thursday, a building under construction at 13 Wilson Mba Street, Arowojobe Estate, Maryland, Lagos, collapsed, resulting in the deaths of five workers. The incident occurred at 3:49 a.m. in the Maryland area of Lagos State, Nigeria.

The Lagos State Emergency Management Agency (LASEMA) confirmed the tragedy in a statement released by its director, Olufemi Damilola Oke-Osanyintolu. The emergency team quickly responded to the scene, where a set of three terraces under construction had crumbled.

“Search and rescue operations began immediately,” Oke-Osanyintolu stated. “Five adult males were recovered dead while four adult males were rescued alive, and one adult male trapped under the rubble was rescued alive by LASEMA and the Lagos State Fire Service.”

All the men involved were site workers, and those rescued received pre-hospital care on-site before being transported to the hospital. The State Environmental Health Monitoring Unit (SEHMU) was contacted to handle the remains of the five fatalities.

LASEMA’s excavator was deployed to speed up the search and rescue operations.