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Building in Nigeria's second-largest city collapses as people shop on ground floor

Nigeria Kano building collapse
Posted at 8:39 PM, Aug 30, 2022
and last updated 2022-08-31 11:30:24-04

Officials in Nigeria say at least eight people were rescued after a three-story building collapsed in a market area of the country's second-largest city.

Authorities with Nigeria's National Emergency Management Agency said the structure was still under construction. Still, people had been shopping on the ground floor, where stores were allowed to open during construction.

Nura Abdullahi, the local coordinator for the country's National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA), confirmed the rescues and said the building completely collapsed on Tuesday, CNN reported.

"The building was under construction, but the ground floor was occupied," Abdullahi said.

Several shops were already operating on the ground floor and had customers. Officials said it wasn't immediately clear how many more people were trapped.

"We believe people were shopping there at the time of the collapse. We are not able to get a rough estimate of the number of people trapped inside," he said.