Synagogue Building Collapse Death toll in hitting 80

The death toll in a building collapse at a televangelist’s church complex in Nigeria has risen to 80, an official said Thursday.

Ibrahim Farinloye of the Nigerian Emergency Management Agency announced the toll as search operations continued at T.B. Joshua’s Synagogue, Church of All Nations, on the outskirts of Lagos, Nigeria’s commercial capital.

WashingtonPost

 Church officials prevented rescuers from extricating victims at the site of a six-story building collapse, leading to a loss of lives, Nigeria's emergency agency said Friday.

Most victims were South African, according to the South African government, which said at least 67 South Africans died and 17 appear to be missing in the rubble of the six-story building that had a shopping mall on the ground floor and guest rooms above.

Ibrahim Farinloye, spokesman for the Nigerian Emergency Management Agency told The Associated Press that the building at televangelist T.B. Joshua's Synagogue, Church of All Nations, collapsed at 12:44 p.m. on Friday but rescuers did not get full access until after 5 p.m. on Sunday.

He said rescue workers were on the scene by 1:50 p.m. Friday and that as they were waiting, they were told that at least three people were trapped nearby. The rescuers saved them, Farinloye said. But church officials prevented rescuers from getting further access, he said.

"Some of us were even attacked (by church members). We wanted to ask the military to deploy to force access for us, but there were many foreigners at the church and we did not want to create an international incident," Farinloye said in a telephone interview.

Church members also were hostile to journalists and smashed at least one television camera.

http://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/nigeria-church-obstructed-rescue-lives-lost-25615324