Doumbia Ladji, a resident, stands in front of the collapsed apartment building where he lived in Abidjan, Ivory Coast March 7, 2022. REUTEERS/Luc Gnago
March 7, 2022
ABIDJAN (Reuters) – At least six people, including two children, died when a block of flats collapsed overnight in Abidjan, the commercial capital of Ivory Coast, the fire service said on Monday.
Rescuers used torches to search the mounds of broken concrete and took 36 people out alive, officials said. A firefighter rocked a baby in the back of an ambulance.
“Everything was shaking,” said survivor Ladji Doumbia, who lived on the fourth floor. “I stumbled from left to right and then at the last moment I heard a loud noise.”
Prime Minister Patrick Achi visited the site and promised an investigation into the cause of the disaster, which came a week after several people died when another building collapsed in another part of Abidjan.
“A certain number of actors are still not respecting the minimum rules and continue to take actions leading to this type of situation,” Achi said.
Firefighters were called to the five-story building in the Cocody neighborhood just after midnight. Six bodies were recovered from the rubble and searches continued late Monday, the fire department said.
Thirteen people were taken to the hospital, it said. The number of people in the building when it collapsed was not immediately clear.
(Reporting by Loucoumane Coulibaly and Ange Aboa; Writing by Sofia Christensen; Editing by Nellie Peyton, Mark Heinrich and Andrew Heavens)
https://www.oann.com/at-least-four-die-as-ivory-coast-apartment-block-collapses/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=at-least-four-die-as-ivory-coast-apartment-block-collapses At least six die when a block of flats collapses in Ivory Coast
