Hundreds of pupils and teachers at a Lagos school narrowly escaped death on Monday after the four-storey building housing their institution collapsed just three minutes after they were rushed to safety by a quick-thinking bystander who noticed the structure was about to fail.
The building housing Yemco Nursery, Primary and Comprehensive College at 11 Adudatu Street, behind County Hospital in the Aguda area of Ogba, caved in around noon. The structure reportedly gave way only minutes after pupils and staff were rushed out of the premises, averting what residents described as a potential tragedy.
A man in the area alerted school authorities that the building might be unsafe, prompting the quick evacuation of all occupants. Earlier, wooden planks had fallen off the roof, raising an alarm. A resident said: “The students narrowly escaped the incident. It was just about three minutes after they were evacuated from the building that the structure collapsed,” adding that the structure had not shown obvious signs that it was about to give way. Another eyewitness, Taiwo Ridwan, said: “At first, the house started cracking little by little.”
Officials of the Lagos State Building Control Agency and the Lagos State Fire and Rescue Service secured the scene and restricted public access to the collapsed structure. Part of the property used for residential purposes remained standing beside the collapsed section.
The incident adds to a growing list of building collapse cases recorded in Lagos in recent years, and comes about a month after another building collapse was reported at a public school in the Odo-Kekere community in the Ikorodu area of the state.
The collapse has renewed concerns about the safety of school infrastructure in densely populated urban areas. Many educational institutions operate in buildings originally designed for residential or commercial use, raising questions about structural suitability. In 2019, a building housing a primary school in the Ita-Faaji area of Lagos collapsed, killing at least 20 people and trapping dozens of children under the rubble.
Building collapses remain a recurring problem in Lagos, consistently raising concerns about construction quality, regulatory oversight, and adherence to safety standards. Emergency officials are expected to conduct structural assessments of nearby buildings to ensure the safety of residents in the area.
No fatalities or injuries were reported at the time of filing.
