Building collapse in Nigeria's capital leaves at least 7 dead, authorities say

ABUJA, Nigeria -- At least seven people died when a building collapsed in a suburban area of Nigeria’s capital over the weekend, a local official said Monday.

“We have called off search and rescue because we excavated and there was nobody left in the rubble,” said Nkechi Isa, a spokesperson for the Abuja city emergency department.

Building collapses are becoming increasingly common in Nigeria, with more than a dozen such incidents recorded in the last two years. Authorities often blame such disasters on failures to enforce building safety regulations and on poor maintenance.

The building that collapsed Saturday, located in the Sabon-Lugbe area, had already been partly demolished and its structure was further compromised by scavengers looking for scrap metal, according to a statement from the Abuja police released on Sunday.

Abuja police spokesperson Josephine Adeh said five people were rescued from the rubble.

Nigeria, Africa’s most populous country, has recorded 22 building collapses between January and July this year, according to the Council for the Regulation of Engineering in Nigeria.

In July, a two-story school collapsed in north-central Nigeria, killing 22 students. The Saints Academy college in Plateau state’s Busa Buji community collapsed shortly after students, many of whom were 15 years old or younger, arrived for classes.