South Africa claims 67 of their citizens died in Synagogue Church building collapse

The National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) on Tuesday evening put death toll at the collapsed building at The Synagogue church in Lagos at 62, with most of them believed to be foreign members of the church. President Jacob Zuma of South Africa however announced that 67 of his countrymen perished in the disaster.

The collapsed building inside the church’s premises was a five-storey building which initially was two-storey and the church decided to add three additional floors on it.

President Zuma said in a statement:“I am greatly saddened to announce that 67 South Africans died and scores of others sustained injuries, after a building at the Synagogue Church of All Nations collapsed on Friday, 12 September 2014, in Lagos, in the Federal Republic of Nigeria.

“Not in the recent history of our country have we had this large number of our people die in one incident outside the country.

“Our thoughts are with the families, friends and colleagues that have lost their loved ones in this heart-breaking tragedy. The whole nation shares the pain of the mothers, fathers, daughters and sons who have lost their loved ones. We are all in grief”.

“As we mourn this sudden and tragic death of our fellow compatriots, I have directed the relevant Government departments and entities to act with the utmost urgency to ensure that we facilitate the movement of relevant family members to Nigeria to identify the bodies of their loved ones and to ensure that we repatriate the remains as soon as possible under the circumstances,” Zuma added.

Mr. Zuma’s casualty figures differs from that of NEMA which had been on ground since the day of the incident. NEMA said 131 people have been rescued with more likely to be discovered. So, it remains unclear how the South Africans arrived at their casualty figures.