MANY CHILDREN KILLED, SCORES TRAPPED AS SALVATION MINISTRIES CHURCH BUILDING COLLAPSES IN DELTA

Scores of persons particularly children were trapped as a church building along the popular Okpanam road in Oshimili North local government area of Delta State, collapsed on Tuesday evening.

The collapsed building is located opposite Rain Oil on Okpanam Road by Noble Academy.

The building, housing the Asaba branch of Salvation Ministries, was said to have caved in during a worship service.

Salvation Ministries is owned by popular Nigerian pastor, Bishop David Ibiyeomie, with headquarters in Port Harcourt, Rivers State.

It was gathered that construction works was ongoing in part of the church building before the unfortunate incident.

Sources said that those affected by the building collapse were mostly children.

Meanwhile, some of the trapped victims have been rescued and rushed to hospital for treatment.

“Some corpses mostly of children have been recovered by a rescue team. Some of the survivors have been rushed to hospital. It was the children section that caved in,” one of the sources told our correspondent.

However, unconfirmed reports had it that one person was confirmed dead while many others including children were still being trapped in the one-storey building.

Men of the Delta State Emergency Management Agency, fire service and the state police command formed the rescue team as trapped children were crying under the debris of the collasped building.

No fewer than 15 women and 20 children have been rescued but their fate could not be immediately ascertained.