NO fewer than even people were trapped when a storey building under construction collapsed inside Lagos State Secretariat, Alausa, Ikeja, on Thursday.

Nigerian Tribune learnt that the victims, including the site engineer, were busy working when the building caved in at about 2.00p.m, on Thursday.

As at 6:45p.m when the Nigerian Tribune visited the scene, four persons had been rescued with two of them seriously injured while another two were still trapped.

According to an eyewitnesses, the building was supposed to accommodate the Office of Drainage Services, an arm of the Lagos State Ministry for the Environment.

The incident, however, disrupted official activities at the ministry as officers of the state Fire Service and the state Emergency Management Authority besieged the place for secue operation.

Though the state Commissioner for Environment, Mr Tunji Bello, was around, he refused to make comment but directed the rescue team to ensure that no life is lost in the rubble.

But a member of staff of the ministry, who oleaded anonymity, told the Nigerian Tribune that the Ministry of Physical Planning and Urban Development had earlier marked the building, saying it lacked approval and that work should be discontinued but the Ministry of Environment insisted on going on with the work.

She said: “One of those trapped called me on my phone severally begging for assistance to rescue him from the rubbles but he has now stopped calling, only God knows if he is still alive.”

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