An unidentified adult male is stuck in an underground tunnel in the Onipanu area of Lagos State.
PUNCH Online learned that this happened on Monday while the person was clearing drainages in the area.
The Permanent Secretary of the Lagos State Emergency Management Authority, Olufemi Oke-Osanyintolu, said in a statement that the worker was hired by the Lagos Metropolitan Area Transport Authority.
The LASEMA boss said the worker got stuck in the tunnel while trying to remove debris from the underground drainage.
The statement said, 'Upon arrival of the emergency responders at the incident scene, investigations revealed that an adult male was clearing drainages and accessed the underground tunnel and got trapped.'
Further investigation at the scene revealed that the man was a Drain Ducks worker employed by LAMATA, while trying to dislodge and evacuate debris from the underground drainage, unfortunately, got trapped in between the tunnel.
“Further investigation at the incident scene revealed that the man was a Drain Ducks worker employed by LAMATA, while trying to dislodge and evacuate debris from the underground drainage, unfortunately, got trapped in between the tunnel.”
Oke-Osanyitolu further stated that a search and rescue operation by the LASEMA Response Team and other emergency responders started at about 4:25pm.
He added that they were working together diligently to rescue the trapped victim, and the operation was still ongoing.
“In order to speed up positive results, advanced equipment has been deployed in the manhole to save the worker’s life, while efforts have also been made to block off and divert inflow of water from the Ilupeju area in order to reduce the volume of underground fluids,” the statement added.
