Up to 160 people are reported to have been killed after a church roof collapsed onto worshippers in southern Nigeria.

Etete Peters of the University of Uyo Teaching Hospital said mortuaries were overflowing and the final death toll was likely to be much higher.

Youth leader Edikan Peters said many other victims were in private mortuaries scattered all over the city of Uyo.

Congregants said the Reigners Bible Church was still under construction when it was crowded with worshippers to ordain a bishop on Saturday.

Metal girders crashed and the corrugated iron roof caved in.

The state government said it will investigate to see if building standards were compromised.

Buildings collapse regularly in Nigeria because of endemic corruption with contractors using sub-standard materials and bribing inspectors to ignore shoddy work or a lack of building permits.

In 2014, 116 people died when a multi-story building of the Synagogue Church of All Nations collapsed in Lagos. A coroner blamed structural faults.