Pilgrims were visiting the Menjar Shenkora Arerti Mariam Church to mark the annual Virgin Mary festival.
Published On 1 Oct 2025
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 Amhara region, some 70 kilometres (43 miles) east of the capital, Addis Ababa.
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A group of pilgrims were visiting the Menjar Shenkora Arerti Mariam Church to mark the annual Virgin Mary festival when the scaffolding collapsed.
District police chief Ahmed Gebeyehu told state media Fana “the number of dead has reached 36 and could increase more,” according to the AFP news agency.
The number of people injured remains unclear, but some reports suggest they could be as many as 200.
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.
Some of the more seriously hurt were taken to hospitals in the capital, he added.
Teshale Tilahun, the local administrator, described the incident as “a tragic loss for the community”.
Images shared on the EBC’s official Facebook page showed tangled wooden poles, with crowds gathering amid the dense debris.
Other pictures appeared to show the outside of the church, where scaffolding had been precariously constructed.
Health and safety regulations are virtually non-existent in Ethiopia, Africa’s second most populous nation, and construction accidents are common.
