By Alusine Sesay
At least nine people have died and dozens unaccounted for when a seven-storey building collapsed Monday morning in Sierra Leone’s capital, Freetown, authorities said Tuesday.
Rescue teams have been searching for dozens of residents who are missing as the rescue efforts continue the second day. So far seven people have been rescued from the rubble since the building collapsed along Bai Bureh Road, Shell New Road, east of Freetown around 11 a.m. local time on Monday, the National Disaster Management Agency, NDMA, said in a statement on Monday. Children are among the dead.
The rescue operation is estimated to take days.
What caused the new building to collapse remains unclear.
It is uncertain how many were in the building when it came down. What is certain is that many people including children, were at home because the country was observing a national holiday when the accident struck.
The death toll is expected to rise as debris from the seven-storey building fell on three apartments nearby.
The NDMA has confirmed that more people remain trapped beneath the debris, with some able to communicate their locations to rescuers.
Due to the magnitude of the incident, the NDMA, in collaboration with the Freetown City Council (FCC) and other partners, has secured two private cranes to assist with the ongoing rescue operations.
Lt. Gen. (Rtd.) Brima Sesay, Director General of the NDMA, reaffirmed the Agency’s commitment to raising public awareness about the risks associated with using unqualified contractors and substandard building materials. He also emphasized that the NDMA would continue conducting vulnerability assessments to help reduce the frequency of building collapses across the country.