Rescue workers gather next to heavy machinery at the site of a school that collapsed in Jos, in Nigeria's central Plateau State, July 12, 2024. MUHAMMAD TANKO SHITTU/AFP/GETTY

At least 22 students were killed on Friday when a school in central Nigeria collapsed on pupils taking exams, the Associated Press reported. Trapped students were heard crying for help under the rubble after the Saint Academy school in Jos North district of Plateau State fell in on classrooms.

Mechanical diggers tried to rescue the victims while parents desperately looked for their children.

A total of 154 students were initially trapped in the rubble, but Plateau police spokesperson Alfred Alabo later said 132 of them had been rescued and were being treated for injuries in various hospitals. He said 22 students died. An earlier report by local media had said at least 12 people were killed.

With his mother at his hospital bedside him, injured student Wulliya Ibrahim told AFP: "I entered the class not more than five minutes, when I heard a sound, and the next thing is I found myself here."

"We are many in the class, we are writing our exams," he said.

The National Emergency Management Agency said the two-story building housing Saint Academy collapsed killing "several students" without giving details.

"NEMA and other critical stakeholders are presently carrying out Search and Rescue operations," it said.

A resident at the scene, Chika Obioha, told AFP he saw at least eight bodies at the site and that dozens more had been injured.

"Everyone is helping out to see if we can rescue more people," he said.

The AFP correspondent said he saw 11 bodies in the morgue at the Bingham University Teaching Hospital and five dead taken into the mortuary at the Our Lady of Apostles Hospital in Jos.

"To ensure prompt medical attention, the government has instructed hospitals to prioritize treatment without documentation or payment," Plateau state's commissioner for information, Musa Ashoms, said in a statement.

The state government blamed the tragedy on the school's "weak structure and location near a riverbank." It urged schools facing similar issues to shut down.

Building collapses are fairly common in Africa's most populous nation because of lax enforcement of building standards, negligence and use of low-quality materials. Corruption to bypass official oversight is also often blamed for Nigerian building disasters.

At least 45 people were killed in 2021 when a high-rise building under construction collapsed in the upscale Ikoyi district in Nigeria's economic capital Lagos.

Ten people were killed when a three-story building collapsed in the Ebute-Metta area of Lagos the year after.

Since 2005, at least 152 buildings have collapsed in Lagos, according to a South African university researcher investigating construction disasters.


Bystanders gather next to the ruins of a school that collapsed in Jos, in central Nigeria's Plateau State, July 12, 2024. MUHAMMAD TANKO SHITTU/AFP/GETTY