The death toll in George building collapse has risen

May 7, 2024 34

Rescue teams in South Africa are searching for survivors after a five-story building under construction collapsed on Monday, killing six people and leaving at least 50 trapped. Officials in the city of George, Western Cape province, say 24 people have been pulled from the wreckage and taken to hospital. BBC Africa further reports that

Rescuers heard from 11 more survivors in the ruins of the under-construction building on Tuesday. They include four who are trapped in the basement. The cause of the collapse is being investigated. At the scene on Tuesday, emergency workers were taking it in turns to work on the small site, removing concrete blocks and debris by hand. Every so often, the team leader raised his fist, calling for silence. Everyone stopped and looked on in the hope that someone had been found. Some of them were false alarms and the noise resumed.

The majority of the workers who were on the construction site – thought to be at least 75 in total – are still unaccounted for and it has been a long and slow process to bring survivors out.

Western Cape premier Alan Winde, the head of the provincial government, who was at the scene, told Sky News: “Seventy-five members of construction crew have been confirmed on site at that time of the incident.

Written by: Tonata Kadhila

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