JOS, Nigeria, July 12, 2024 (BSS/AFP) - A school in central Nigeria

collapsed on Friday, killing several students and trapping others who were
heard crying for help under the rubble, a rescue agency and witnesses said.

Mechanical diggers tried to rescue victims while parents desperately looked
for their children at the Saint Academy in Jos North district of Plateau
State after the building fell in on students taking their exams, an AFP
correspondent at the site said.

"I entered the class not more than five minutes, when I heard a sound, and
the next thing is I found myself here," Wulliya Ibrahim, one of the injured
students told AFP with his mother at his hospital bedside.

"We are many in the class, we are writing our exams."

The National Emergency Management Agency said the two-storey building housing
Saint Academy collapsed killing "several students" without giving details.

"NEMA and other critical stakeholders are presently carrying out Search and
Rescue operations," it said.

Officials did not give a precise toll, but a resident at the scene Chika
Obioha told AFP he saw eight bodies at the site and that dozens more had been
injured.

"Everyone is helping out to see if we can rescue more people," he said.

An AFP correspondent said he saw five dead taken into the mortuary at the Our
Lady of Apostles Hospital in Jos.

At least 15 rescued and injured students were admitted, hospital officials
said.

It was not immediately clear what caused the collapse but residents said it
came after three days of heavy rains in Plateau.

Building collapses are fairly common in Africa's most populous nation because
of lax enforcement of building standards, negligence and use of low-quality
materials.

At least 45 people were killed in 2021 when a high-rise building under
construction collapsed in the upscale Ikoyi district in Nigeria's economic
capital Lagos.

Ten people were killed when a three-storey building collapsed in the Ebute-
Metta area of Lagos the year after.

Since 2005, at least 152 buildings have collapsed in Lagos, according to a
South African university researcher investigating construction disasters.

Bad workmanship, low-quality materials and corruption to bypass official
oversight are often blamed for Nigerian building disasters.