Three fatalities have been reported at the demolition site for the proposed Enugu Central Station along Ogui-Market Road in the Enugu North Council Area of the state.
The victims, identified as scavengers, lost their lives when the walls of the demolishing property collapsed on them.
According to reports, two individuals died on Friday, with another fatality occurring on Saturday under similar circumstances.
An eyewitness informed journalists that the two individuals who died on Friday were in the process of evacuating belongings from a house whose occupants had been displaced, when an earthmoving machine accidentally knocked the house down, causing the wall to collapse on them.
“They were rushed to the Mother of Specialist Hospital but regrettably on getting to the hospital doctors pronounced them dead.
“On Saturday, around 11:30am another person was hit and killed by falling debris from one of the several storey buildings.”
A senior police officer at the scene confirmed to newsmen the deaths of the scavengers, who came to make brisk business, from the rods and other building materials extracted from demolished buildings.
Although the officer could not confirmed the number of casualties, he simply said: “I can tell you authoritatively that some persons died at the demolition site when bulldozers pulled walls and it fell on them.”
Despite the death of some scavengers, hundreds of others were still scrambling to scoop metallic items and plastics from the debris of the demolished buildings whose owners had been displaced from the Holy Ghost by Market Road, Enugu.
