Residents of Oremeta Street in the Ojodu area of Lagos State were thrown into panic on Saturday morning after a two-storey building housing the well-known Equal Right Restaurant suddenly collapsed, trapping several people underneath the rubble.
The incident, which occurred around 9:00 a.m., caused chaos as customers, restaurant workers, and even a family reportedly living in the building were caught inside at the time of the collapse. Eyewitnesses said the restaurant was open for business when the building began to shake and then crumbled, sending people running and screaming for help.
Rescue operations began almost immediately as emergency response agencies stormed the site. Officials from the Lagos State Emergency Management Agency (LASEMA), the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA), the Police, the Federal Road Safety Corps (FRSC), and the Lagos State Fire and Rescue Services were all on ground working tirelessly to save lives.
ConfirmNews correspondent who visited the site observed rescue teams using both heavy-duty and light-duty equipment to carefully clear the debris.
The area was filled with distraught residents and sympathisers who watched in fear and disbelief as the operations continued.
The Permanent Secretary of LASEMA, Dr. Oluwafemi Oke-Osanyintolu, who was present at the scene, confirmed to journalists that five persons had already been rescued alive as of the time of reporting. He stated that the rescue operation was being carried out with extreme caution, layer by layer, to avoid causing further harm to those possibly still trapped under the wreckage.
“We are approaching the situation systematically, using heavy-duty and light-duty equipment to get to ground zero,” Oke-Osanyintolu said. “We have credible information that more people are still under the rubble, so we are moving from one layer to the next, carefully checking for any survivors before proceeding.”
Rescue efforts were still ongoing at the time of filing this report, as emergency teams continued to dig through the collapsed structure in search of survivors.
More updates will follow as the situation develops.