SHOPPING MALL COLLAPSES IN GHANA

SHOPPING MALL COLLAPSES IN GHANA

Rescuers are battling to frees trapped people from the rubble of a collapsed multi-storey-shopping centre in Accra, Ghana.
Emergency officials said the building collapesd on Wednesday, trapping dozens of people.
 A Reuters witness saw two injured and one dead.
The building housing the Melcom department store collapsed in the suburb of Achimota less than an hour after it opened with dozens inside.
Hundreds of rescuers are digging through the rubble, amid fears that dozens of people are trapped inside, our correspondent says.
“I was very close to the mall because I was going to buy something only for me to see the building coming down,” resident Ama Okyere told the AFP news agency.
“I had to run for my life. I was so terrified. I believe there are lots of people trapped under this because this is a heavily patronised shopping mall in the area.”
Family members have been trying to call relatives feared trapped beneath the rubble on their mobile phones, AFP reports.
Another witness, John Owusu, said he heard a bang before the building collapsed.
A spokesman for President John Dramani Mahama said he was cutting short a campaigning tour in the north of the country for December elections to focus on the rescue efforts.

His deputy, Paa Kwesi Amissah-Arthur, is co-ordinating rescue efforts after the building collapsed in the city’s Achimota neighbourhood.

Officials say they believe about 50 people were inside the Melcom store when it collapsed at around opening time.
President Mahama, in a tweet moments after the building collapsed, said: “My prayers are with the workers, shoppers and others who are trapped in the rubble of the Achimota Melcom building.”