Cape Town. At least two people died and about 50 workers were trapped under the rubble of a building under construction that collapsed this Monday in southern South Africa, police announced.
Two of the 22 people rescued from the building and taken by ambulance to hospitals in the region succumbed to their injuries, municipal authorities announced in the evening.
A previous report released by the police reported one death.
“A team of workers of 75 people was on site at the time of the collapse” of this building under construction in George, on the coast, said municipality spokesperson Chantel Edwards, also in a statement.
There is still no information available on the nearly 50 people still trapped under the rubble.
Mario Ferreira, spokesperson for the NGO Gift of the Givers, present at the scene of the accident, reported that rescuers had been able to “communicate with some of the people under the rubble.”
According to him, some of the evacuees were “seriously injured.”
The five-story building, which includes an underground parking lot, collapsed early in the afternoon, for reasons that are still unknown.
The images released by the municipality show the emergency services deployed at the scene.
A coordination post was established to direct rescue operations with the help of several emergency services and a hundred people.
Excavators and rescue dogs with their handlers also left Cape Town, emergency services reported.
“Our thoughts are with the families and all those affected who continue to wait for news of their loved ones,” George Mayor Ald Van Wyk said in a statement.
George is a city of about 160,000 inhabitants, located near the Garden Route, a popular tourist route along the country’s southern coast.
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– 2024-05-09 07:02:39
