{"id":3079,"date":"2025-10-02T07:35:35","date_gmt":"2025-10-02T07:35:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/2025\/10\/02\/ethiopia-church-scaffolding-collapse-kills-36-during-religious-festival\/"},"modified":"2025-10-02T07:35:35","modified_gmt":"2025-10-02T07:35:35","slug":"ethiopia-church-scaffolding-collapse-kills-36-during-religious-festival","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/2025\/10\/02\/ethiopia-church-scaffolding-collapse-kills-36-during-religious-festival\/","title":{"rendered":"Ethiopia church scaffolding collapse kills 36 during religious festival"},"content":{"rendered":"<div>\n<p><em>Pilgrims were visiting the Menjar Shenkora Arerti Mariam Church to mark the annual Virgin Mary festival.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div aria-live=\"polite\" aria-atomic=\"true\">\n<p>Makeshift scaffolding set up at a church in Ethiopia has collapsed, killing at least 36 people and injuring dozens, state media reported.<\/p>\n<p>The incident occurred at about 7:45am [4:45 GMT] on Wednesday in the town of Arerti, in the Amhara region, some 70 kilometres (43 miles) east of the capital, Addis Ababa.<\/p>\n<section>\n<h2>Recommended Stories <\/h2>\n<p><span>list of 3 items<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><span>list 1 of 3<\/span><a href=\"http:\/\/www.aljazeera.com\/news\/2025\/9\/9\/ethiopia-inaugurates-gerd-dam-amid-downstream-tensions-with-egypt-sudan\">Ethiopia inaugurates GERD dam amid downstream tensions with Egypt, Sudan<\/a><\/li>\n<li><span>list 2 of 3<\/span><a href=\"http:\/\/www.aljazeera.com\/features\/2025\/9\/9\/from-haile-selassie-to-crowdfunding-how-ethiopias-gerd-dam-was-born\">From Haile Selassie to crowdfunding, how Ethiopia\u2019s GERD dam was born<\/a><\/li>\n<li><span>list 3 of 3<\/span><a href=\"http:\/\/www.aljazeera.com\/video\/newsfeed\/2025\/9\/9\/ethiopia-opens-nile-dam-despite-concerns-from-egypt-and-sudan\">Ethiopia opens Nile dam despite concerns from Egypt and Sudan<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span>end of list<\/span><\/section>\n<p>A group of pilgrims were visiting the Menjar Shenkora Arerti Mariam Church to mark the annual Virgin Mary festival when the scaffolding collapsed.<\/p>\n<p>District police chief Ahmed Gebeyehu told state media Fana \u201cthe number of dead has reached 36 and could increase more,\u201d according to the AFP news agency.<\/p>\n<p>The number of people injured remains unclear, but some reports suggest they could be as many as 200.<\/p>\n<p>Local official Atnafu Abate told the Ethiopian Broadcasting Corporation (EBC) that some people remained under the rubble but did not provide details on rescue operations.<\/p>\n<p>Some of the more seriously hurt were taken to hospitals in the capital, he added.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_4001588\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-4001588\"><img decoding=\"async\" data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"http:\/\/www.aljazeera.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/AP25274592464951-1759355474.jpg?w=770&#038;resize=770%2C514&#038;quality=80\" alt=\"Worshippers stand inside the Menjar Shenkora Arerti Mariam Church under construction that collapsed\" fetchpriority=\"low\"><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-4001588\">Worshippers stand inside the Menjar Shenkora Arerti Mariam Church under construction that collapsed in Arerti, Amhara region of northern Ethiopia, on Wednesday, October 1, 2025 [Samuel Getachew\/AP Photo]<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Teshale Tilahun, the local administrator, described the incident as \u201ca tragic loss for the community\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>Images shared on the EBC\u2019s official Facebook page showed tangled wooden poles, with crowds gathering amid the dense debris.<\/p>\n<p>Other pictures appeared to show the outside of the church, where scaffolding had been precariously constructed.<\/p>\n<p>Health and safety regulations are virtually non-existent in Ethiopia, Africa\u2019s second most populous nation, and construction accidents are common.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Pilgrims were visiting the Menjar Shenkora Arerti Mariam Church to mark the annual Virgin Mary festival. Makeshift scaffolding set up at a church in Ethiopia has collapsed, killing at least 36 people and injuring dozens, state media reported. The incident occurred at about 7:45am [4:45 GMT] on Wednesday in the town of Arerti, in the &#8230; <a title=\"Ethiopia church scaffolding collapse kills 36 during religious festival\" class=\"read-more\" href=\"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/2025\/10\/02\/ethiopia-church-scaffolding-collapse-kills-36-during-religious-festival\/\" aria-label=\"Read more about Ethiopia church scaffolding collapse kills 36 during religious festival\">Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3080,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3079","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-travel"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3079","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3079"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3079\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3080"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3079"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3079"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3079"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}