Morgues and private mortuaries are overflowing and the death toll is expected to rise, Etete Peters of the University of Uyo Teaching Hospital told the Associated Press.
The Reigners Bible Church International, in Uyo, southern Nigeria, was still under construction and workers had been rushing to finish in time for the ceremony on Saturday witnesses said. Hundreds of people, including Akwa Ibom state Governor Udom Emmanuel were inside, reports the Daily Mail.
Police spokesperson Cordelia Nwawe said Governor Emmanuel and Weeks, who preaches that God will make his followers rich, escaped injury.
Computer program analyst Ukeme Eyibi had parked his car outside the complex to make a phone call when he heard the deafening explosion of sound. His first thought was that a bomb had gone off when he saw the church had all but disappeared.
“There were trapped bodies, parts of bodies, blood all over the place and people’s handbags and shoes scattered,” Eyibio said in a telephone interview, reports the Chicago Tribune.
Eyibio, with the help of three others, managed to drag about 10 survivors away from the overflow area outside the collapsed church. They were told by a construction worker who had attended the ceremony to not try and go into the main structure because there was the danger of further collapse.
The worker called his boss at Julius Berger construction company and the company sent a crane to help in raising the debris off bodies. The state government said it was initiating an investigation into the collapse to see if building standards were compromised.
Nigeria has had a problem with buildings collapsing in the past, due to endemic corruption in the construction industry. From contractors using sub-standard building materials to bribing building inspectors to ignore shoddy work and a lack of building permits, graft is rampant in the industry.