Students who survived the devastating building collapse at Saint Academy in Jos, the capital of Plateau State, recounted the events leading to the tragic incident on Friday, July 12, which claimed the lives of their classmates and friends.

Some of the students who spoke with The PUNCH correspondent on Saturday recounted that the building suddenly collapsed while they were having classes, stating that the loud noise which accompanied the collapse felt like the world had come to an end.

The school building collapsed at about 8:30am when the students and teachers were in their classes.

According to the state Commissioner for Information, Musa Ashoms, the death toll from the tragic incident had risen to 22, while 154 persons suffered various degrees of injuries. The commissioner said a thorough investigation into the cause of the collapse was underway.

However, speaking with The PUNCH  from their hospital beds in Jos on Saturday, some of the surviving students recounted how they were trapped under the rubble for hours.

Some of the survivors, who spoke with our correspondent, included an SS1 student, a JJS1 student, and two SS2 students.

Narrating her experience, an SS1 student said she was in her class with about 43 other students when the two-storey building caved in.

According to her, she was trapped for hours under the rubble and found it difficult to breathe before help eventually reached her.

She said, ‘I am an SS1 student. Our teacher was teaching us in the class, and he was writing on the board when the building suddenly collapsed on our heads. The noise was so loud, and it was as if the world was about to end. Everywhere was dark, and I did not know where I was as the debris covered me. I found it hard to breathing at all because the decking just covered me. Before the building collapsed, I heard one of the students telling a teacher that the building was shaking, but he asked the student to shut up and enter the class. Shortly after sitting down, the building caved in.”

A SS2 student stated that the building collapsed while her classmates were awaiting the arrival of their teacher.

She said, “We were inside the class, and one of our classmates came to tell us that our Government teacher was calling us to join the next class. As we were about to leave, the building went down.”

Narrating how the building collapsed, another SS2 student said, “I was in class with other classmates and the teacher when we suddenly started hearing noises from the building. We didn’t know what the noise was all about. Some of my classmates wanted to run, but they could not. Some people even went under the table. My head was on my table, and suddenly the building caved in. We were under the rubble for hours before we were rescued, while some students died.”

Another student who spoke with Sunday PUNCH said he was under the rubble for many hours before he was discovered by rescuers.

“They had to break some of the structures covering me before they could pull me out. About seven of my classmates were also trapped with me. Unfortunately, some of them did not survive,” he said.