CNN reported that the high-rise building is located on Donald's Street in the wealthy Ikoyi neighborhood of the capital Lagos, where luxury apartments are built. It is unclear exactly how many people were inside when the house collapsed.
"I thought it was an earthquake and rushed out of the house around 3pm. I felt the building was moving and knew something was wrong," Olu Apata, a nearby resident and president of the Nigeria Bar Association, told CNN. Apata said the building was built over the past two years.
According to a statement from the Lagos government, three people were rescued from the house collapse. The city's rescue unit, fire service and ambulance were present at the scene. The statement did not say how many people were missing, but local media said that about 100 people were buried in the rubble.
An investigation into the cause of the collapse is underway and officials are assessing possible damage to surrounding structures.
Muhammad, a civil servant, told CNN he was in the office next to the apartment building when it collapsed. "We heard unusually loud sounds and our buildings were shaking. I looked through the windows and could only see the building next to it collapsing, with one floor after another. And of course, we all ran to safety."
It took rescue services a while to arrive at the scene. Many hours after the collapse, hundreds of people were searching around this area, helplessly watching the concrete slabs piled up. Local people dug up the rubble with their hands.
Some in the crowd were very angry because there was no immediate official emergency response. Instead, rescue efforts were made by people crossing the road such as Rashid Olamilekan, who said he had pulled three construction workers out of the rubble. "I am a Nigeria. I have to rescue my people. The rescued workers have been taken to the hospital," Olamilekan added.
House collapse is not uncommon in Lagos, Nigeria's largest city with a population of about 20 million people.
In 2019, two separate buildings collapsed, one of which was a school, killing dozens.
An expert told CNN at the time that more than 1,000 buildings were at risk of collapsing in Lagos.
