Twenty people have been confirmed dead in the collapse of a building housing a nursery and primary school in Nigeria’s biggest city, Lagos, the authorities said on Friday.
The dilapidated building in the densely populated Lagos Island area of the city came down without warning on Wednesday morning.
Rescue workers called off the search for survivors on Thursday, with the death toll at nine and the number of injured who were taken to hospital at 37.
But Lagos State health commissioner Jide Idris said the final toll was now higher. “Twenty people were killed and 45 people were treated in different hospitals,” he told AFP by telephone.
He did not give a breakdown but said the dead included children. Many of the injured who were pulled from the rubble had now been discharged. “About 15” were still in hospital in a stable condition, he said.
One was described as “serious” and required surgery, he added. Lagos governor Akinwunmi Ambode has said the school was operating illegally in the building and pledged to shut down similar establishments throughout the state.
He has promised a full investigation into the tragedy and warned those responsible they would be “severely dealt with“.