By Chijioke Kingsley
Abuja (Sundiata Post) – Scores of school children were feared dead on Friday morning as a 2-storey school building collapsed on them while classes were going on.
Our correspondent gathered that the students of the school, identified as Saint Academy, Busa Buji, in Apata area of Jos North local government area of Plateau state, were having their examination when the building caved in at about 10.30 am.
Both the dead and wounded were rushed in ambulances to Bingham University Teaching Hospital (Jankwano).
It was further gathered that scores of students were still buried under the rubble.
A teacher in the school, Pastor Daniel, told our correspondent amidst sobs that they were in class when suddenly the entire building came down, trapping many students in the process.
Daniel, who said he teaches Christian Religious Studies, said many of those rescued were those on top of the building while those in the ground floor are yet unaccounted for.
He said, “We were just in the class when suddenly the whole building came down on us. We were all confused but I managed to run out through one of the windows.
“My students were shouting and calling on me ‘Uncle, please help me’, but there was nothing I could do. How can I forgive myself that I was not able to help my students at the time they needed me most. Ohhhhh my God.
“The ones I suspect will be saved are those in the last floor. We don’t know the fate of those on the ground floor.”
At the hospital, our correspondent saw four corpses taken to the mortuary in stretchers while many more are being brought in ambulances.
There were wailings by parents and guardians who thronged the hospital to check on the fate of their wards.
A family was said to have lost four children in the unfortunate incident, while a man was seen rolling on the ground as he was yet to know the fate of his two children in the school.
As at the time of writing this story, many more are still being brought to the hospital while men of the fire brigade are searching for survivors.
