A five-story shopping center built earlier this year in a bustling suburb of Ghana's capital crashed down early Wednesday, killing at least three people and leaving over 50 people trapped in the rubble, authorities and eyewitnesses said.
A five-story shopping center built earlier this year in a bustling suburb of Ghana's capital crashed down early Wednesday, killing at least three people and leaving over 50 people trapped in the rubble, authorities and eyewitnesses said.
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The department store was part of the Melcom chain owned by Indian immigrant magnate Bhagwan Khubchandani.
The collapse trapped mainly staff of the company, according to Mr Arvinder Singh, Chief Operating Officer, Melcom Group of Companies.
Family members could be seen at the site earlier in the day attempting to call relatives who could be trapped, while scores of rescue workers at the scene sought to clear debris and get oxygen masks to victims.
A man who saw his brother being put in an ambulance on a stretcher yelled out in agony: "He can't move! He can't move!"
The store sells a variety of cheap, imported household goods and appliances that are popular with working-class Ghanaians.
Vice President Kwesi Amissah-Arthur, who went to the site on Wednesday, has declared the collapse of the building a national disaster.
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