The management of the University College Hospital, Ibadan, Oyo State, the city’s biggest health facility, late Tuesday called on its off-duty workers to return to the hospital.

The move was as a result of the high number of those injured during Tuesday’s explosion brought to the hospital.

Explosion rocked the city on Tuesday, shattering houses and injuring some residents, thus prompting the state government to issue a statement advising residents to remain calm as it was on top of the situation.

A health worker, who spoke on condition of anonymity because the worker was not allowed to speak to the press, said the UCH authorities directed them to report at the hospital to attend to the victims.

“They said more hands were needed to attend to those being brought in, and they were not sure of the number that can still come in later during the evening or early in the morning of Wednesday,” the worker said.

Another UCH employee also said the hospital authorities were particularly worried about those who might come in for admission as a result of the explosion’s “after effects.”

“I am sure it is not about those from the “immediate effects.” There are those who are likely to suffer from shocks, given that the first reports about the incident indicated that there was an earth tremor. These include those with high blood pressure and are hypertensive. Those with injuries from the buildings can be determined, but you cannot tell about those who got hurt after hearing news of the explosion or seeing its effect,” the health worker said.

Meanwhile, it was gathered that the boarding school belonging to All Souls School at Bodija area of the city suffered casualties.

Some of the affected victims were being moved to the UCH for urgent medical attention as of Tuesday night.

However, the Director of Public Relations, University of Ibadan, Joke Akinpelu, denied that some buildings in the institution collapsed due to the explosion.

“There was nothing of such in the University of Ibadan. No building collapse has been recorded here,” Mrs Akinpelu said.

(NAN)