Eight people have died after up to 100 children were feared trapped when a building containing a primary school collapsed in Nigeria.

Emergency services have been scrambling to pull survivors out of the rubble in Lagos as thousands of people swarmed the site to try to help with the rescue effort.

The school had around 100 pupils and at least 37 people have been pulled alive from the debris, Lagos governor Akinwunmi Ambode said.

Image: A boy was pulled out of the rubble in Lagos

Mr Ambode offered condolences to bereaved families, but did not say how many had died.

He added that the school had been set up illegally and that buildings in the area were undergoing integrity testing.


Video showed a huge crowd cheer as one dust-covered child was taken out of the debris and put in an ambulance.

Image: Rescue workers help carry a child at the site of the collapsed building

Ibrahim Farinloye, a spokesman for Nigeria's national emergency management agency, said: "It is believed that many people including children are currently trapped in the building.

"The third floor of the building is housing a private school in the area."

The four-storey building collapsed at around 10am local time (9am GMT), he said.

Image: Rescuers scrambled to find buried survivors

Nigeria, which has poor building regulation oversight, has suffered a number of building collapses.

The International Monetary Fund has previously said the perceived quality of Nigeria's infrastructure is "low".

In 2016, more than 100 people were killed when a church collapsed in southeastern Nigeria, while in Lagos that same year, a five-storey building under construction collapsed causing the deaths of at least 30 people.