Swift care for church collapse survivors

Numerous ambulances at the Swartkop Air Force Base in Pretoria on Monday morning ahead of the arrival of South African survivors of the building collapse in Lagos. Photo: Chris Collingridge

Numerous ambulances at the Swartkop Air Force Base in Pretoria on Monday morning ahead of the arrival of South African survivors of the building collapse in Lagos. Photo: Chris Collingridge

Published Sep 22, 2014

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Military personnel swiftly attended to South Africans injured in the Nigeria church building collapse.

Shortly after the C130 SA Air Force plane carrying them landed at the Swartkop Air Force Base in Pretoria, an initial batch of the patients was whisked off to hospital.

Most of the patients were brought out of the plane on stretchers and taken to ambulances parked nearby.

A woman in a red dress, supported by two soldiers, limped to one of the ambulances. Others could also walk to the ambulances, with assistance.

A convoy of Tshwane metro police officers on motorbikes and SA Police Service vehicles escorted the first two ambulances from the military base shortly after 11am.

Members of a government inter-ministerial task force, led by Presidency Minister Jeff Radebe, approached the plane carrying the 26 injured South Africans after it landed.

The C130 SA Air Force plane touched down at 10.42am.

Three children were among the injured, including an 18-month-old baby and a two-year-old toddler who lost both their parents in the collapse that killed 84 South Africans. - Sapa

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