Twenty-two pupils have been killed after a two-storey school collapsed in Nigeria.

The Saints Academy college in the north-central Plateau state’s Busa Buji community collapsed shortly after pupils, many of whom were 15 years old or younger, arrived for classes.

A total of 154 pupils were trapped with 132 rescued and treated for injuries in various hospitals, a police spokesman said.

Twenty-two pupils were killed.

Rescue and health workers as well as security forces had been deployed at the scene, according to aid Nigeria‘s National Emergency Management Agency.

“To ensure prompt medical attention, the government has instructed hospitals to prioritise treatment without documentation or payment,” Plateau state’s commissioner for information Musa Ashoms said in a statement.

The state government blamed the tragedy on the school’s “weak structure and location near a riverbank”.

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It urged schools facing similar issues to close down.

Dozens of villagers gathered near the school, some weeping and others offering to help, as excavators combed through the debris.

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Building collapses are becoming common in Nigeria, Africa’s most populous country, with more than a dozen such incidents recorded in the last two years.

Authorities often blame such disasters on a failure to enforce building safety regulations and on poor maintenance.

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