At least eight people, including three children under the age of five, died on Monday when a seven-storey building collapsed in Freetown, Sierra Leone's capital, the National Disaster Management Agency (NDMA) said.
“So far, six survivors have been rescued from the rubble, while eight victims, three men, two women and two girls and a boy under five, have been confirmed dead,” the NDMA said at the end of the day on Monday in a statement on the social network Facebook.
“The NDMA has confirmed that more people are still trapped under the rubble and that some of them are able to communicate their location to rescuers,” it added.
The owner of the building does not live in Sierra Leone and the property was being used for residential and commercial purposes.
To help with the rescue efforts, the NDMA, together with the Freetown City Council and other agencies, sent two private cranes to the scene of the accident, the causes of which are not yet known.
The President of Sierra Leone, Julius Maada Bio, expressed his regrets and condolences to the victims' loved ones, saying on the social network X that it was “a devastating loss”.
“We will do everything in our power to rescue, where possible, and provide full support to the survivors (...). We will launch a full-scale investigation into this disaster and do everything in our power to prevent this tragedy from happening again,” he said.
Although Sierra Leone has managed to reduce poverty rates in recent years, the country has been hit by covid-19 and rising commodity and oil prices, fueled by the Russian invasion of Ukraine, and its buildings are often poorly constructed and made of poor quality materials.
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