ABUJA, Dec. 10 (Xinhua) -- Nigerian emergency management authorities on Monday confirmed 15 bodies were recovered and 31 persons rescued from the rubble of a seven-storey building which collapsed last month in the southern city of Port Harcourt, the country's oil hub.
Ejike Martins, a coordinator of the National Emergency Management Agency, said "the peculiarity of this collapse is such that every floor fell directly on the other; the implication is that the debris will be removed bit by bit," Martins told a news conference in Port Harcourt, also the capital of the southern state of Rivers.
The building, located in a Government Reserved Area of the major Nigerian city, was under construction when it collapsed three weeks ago.
The slow pace of rescue operation at the site had earlier evoked strong criticisms from local citizens.
