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8 killed as mosque under construction collapses in Ivory Coast

Search and rescue efforts were 70 percent complete on Friday afternoon, a rescue operations commander said

Published: Fri 16 Aug 2024, 10:19 PM

  • By
  • AFP

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Image used for illustrative purpose. Photo: File

Image used for illustrative purpose. Photo: File

A mosque under construction has partially collapsed in Ivory Coast's capital of Abidjan, killing eight people and wounding two others, Ivorian authorities told AFP on Friday.

The mosque is located in the central area of Cocody, where three other buildings have fallen in recent months, said Alban Konan, a rescue operations commander for the country's Military Firefighters Group.

Konan added that ongoing search and rescue efforts were 70 percent complete on Friday afternoon.

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Firefighters were alerted on Thursday around 1600 GMT (8pm UAE time) about a "building collapse" at a "mosque under construction that was holding prayer" when "the second floor collapsed", he added.

The Ivorian Construction, Housing and Urbanism ministry has not confirmed whether the works were legal.

An unauthorised building under construction that collapsed in Abidjan in July 2023 killed six people.

Another 13 victims died in two building collapses — one whose construction was underway and another that had been illegally built — in February and March 2023.

Ivory Coast adopted several measures to harden building safety monitoring.

Construction in Abidjan, a city of six million people undergoing demographic growth, has exploded in recent years, sometimes without official permits.

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