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| Bo City, Sierra Leone |
FREETOWN, Sierra Leone
A three-storey building collapsed
in Sierra Leone on
Wednesday trapping dozens of people, officials and survivors said.
The
incident occurred in the southern city of BO, the second-largest city in the
West African country after the capital, Freetown.
More than
80 people were working on the building, which was under construction, police
said.
Rescue
operations were ongoing, with nine people rescued and receiving medical
treatment, Joseph Kpanabom, an official at the Ministry of Lands, said.
"By
every indication, this is a case of poor construction work and poor engineering
work," Kpanabom told DPA news agency.
Two
excavators have been deployed to the site to help with the rescue operation,
according to officials.
Assistant
Inspector General of Police, Saidu Kamara, confirmed that nine people have been
rescued and are receiving treatment at a hospital.
He
describes the scene as “pathetic and frantic” and says rescue efforts are
expected to continue through the night after the Wednesday afternoon collapse
along the Bo-Kenema highway in the country’s Southern Province.
"The
mood at the scene is sombre. Our men with excavators will continue the rescue
throughout the night to try and save more survivors,” Saidu Kamara,
assistant inspector general of police, told Radio Democracy.
Kamara
said at least 50 people are trapped in the rubble.
The
missing are believed to include mainly construction workers and some
bystanders.
"I
ran away after I heard the sound of the building cracking," Ibrahim Aruna,
a survivor, said.
It is not
immediately clear what caused the building to collapse. Kamara says police have
deployed two excavators to the site. - Africa
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