Rescue operations end in Nigeria building collapse; 1 dead

One person has died after a three-story building under construction in northwestern Nigeria collapsed, the emergency services said Wednesday.

The victim died at the hospital where six others pulled from the rubble were treated and released, Nigeria’s National Emergency Management Agency said.

The building crumbled on Monday in Kano, northern Nigeria’s commercial hub, and rescue operations have ended, Nura Abdullahi, head of Kano’s disaster management agency.

“We called it off because we came to the conclusion that there was nobody still under the rubble,” Abdullahi said Wednesday.

Of the eight people pulled from the rubble, “one person that has multiple fractures is still in the hospital and six people with minor injuries have already been discharged,” he said.

Kano Gov. Abdullahi Ganduje ordered an investigation to “unravel the cause of the collapsed structure.”

The building was planned as a business center and was being constructed although some businesses were already operating on the ground floor. It was located in a busy neighborhood, initially raising fears among residents that there would be a high number of casualties.

Neither residents nor local officials have explained why the building collapsed. There have been many similar building collapses in Nigeria amid criticism that some unscrupulous builders and corrupt officials do not abide by construction and safety standards.