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| The building looked like it "could fall anytime", one witness told the BBC (Image: BBC) |
Three people, two women and a man, have been confirmed dead after a three-storey building that was being used as a church collapsed on worshippers in the Ghanaian capital, Accra, on Sunday.
Interior Minister Muntaka Mohammed-Mubarak said 20 others, most of them women and children, had been rescued and were being treated in various hospitals. He added that there was a "90-95% certainty" that no one was still trapped inside. Under floodlights, emergency personnel searched the structure's wreckage all night for victims. The interior minister stated that investigations are underway, but it is unknown what caused its collapse, which occurred after heavy rain. According to locals, the building itself, which was a part of a school in the New Town area of Accra, was being used despite not being finished for several years. "It's a very sad day for all of us," Mohammed-Mubarak said.
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He praised emergency responders for their prompt response and nighttime rescue efforts and acknowledged that it had been challenging to determine how many people were inside the building at the time of the collapse. On X, images of workers at the site have been posted by the national fire service amid a tense crowd that is moving around the scene.
According to a man who owns a business adjacent to the collapsed structure, he first heard some noise from behind him, and when he turned around, he saw the structure fall. "There was dust, I couldn't see anything from the back," Amadu Mohammed Hafiz told the BBC.
After that, he heard yelling from within the building and called the police, who arrived at the scene shortly thereafter. Other witnesses said that the unfinished building was poorly built and hadn't needed much work done since construction started. "Everybody in the community knows the building is very weak, yet they allowed services and activities inside," an eyewitness said.
Hafiz stated to the BBC that the structure appeared to "could fall anytime." Operations to check for any more worshippers are continuing and the debris is being cleared.
The incident has rekindled the debate regarding the country's buildings' structural integrity.
People have also been reminded of the multi-story shopping center collapse of 2012, which was blamed on poor construction. According to Ludwing Annang Hesseh, president of the Ghana Institution of Engineering, such incidents continue to occur due to inadequate law enforcement. According to what he told the BBC, "We have the laws, we have the regulation, and if we do things right, we will not get this problem."
Source: BBC
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