Lagos, Nigeria: Building Under Construction Collapses in Fadeyi, Leaving One Dead and Three Rescued

A two-storey building under construction collapsed in the Fadeyi area of Lagos in the early hours of Friday, October 23, killing one man and trapping construction workers under the rubble, the Lagos State Emergency Management Agency said.

The building stood on Akinola Street, near the Fadeyi bus stop, off Ikorodu Road. The agency, known as LASEMA, said it received a distress call at 12:10 a.m. and sent its Cobra Response Team from the Onipanu base, which reached the site two minutes later and found the structure down, with workers suspected to be trapped beneath the debris.

Sounds under the rubble

Rescuers heard groaning sounds beneath the debris, which raised hopes that some of the trapped workers were still alive. An excavator was brought in to help clear the rubble while crews worked through the wreckage.

Three adult men were pulled out alive. Paramedics from LASEMA and the Lagos State Ambulance Service, known as LASAMBUS, treated them at the scene before they were taken to hospital for further treatment. Crews also recovered the body of one man from the wreckage.

LASEMA permanent secretary Dr Olufemi Oke-Osanyintolu said the search was continuing to establish whether anyone else remained trapped under the collapsed building. The Lagos State Fire and Rescue Service and officers of the Nigeria Police Force took part in the operation alongside the agency teams.

Cause not yet known

The agency said the cause of the collapse had not yet been determined. Relevant regulatory bodies are expected to investigate the circumstances that led the structure to fail.

The collapse raised fresh questions about building safety and construction practices in the commercial capital of Nigeria. Those questions now sit with the investigators, and with the search teams still working at the site on Akinola Street to make sure no one is left under the rubble.

No confirmed count of who was inside

Officials have not said how many workers were on the site when the building came down, and no verified count of everyone inside has been released. That gap is why the search continued after the first rescues. The three men pulled out alive are all adults, and the man whose body was recovered was also an adult. No names have been released for any of them.

The response drew in several agencies at once. LASEMA coordinated the scene with its own response unit and paramedics, the Lagos State Fire and Rescue Service, the state ambulance service and the Nigeria Police Force, while the excavator worked through the heavier debris.