GEORGE, South Africa (Reuters) -Rescuers deploy cranes, drills, and bare hands to reach trapped individuals. The collapse of a multi-storey building in George killed at least six.
On Tuesday, 48 out of 75 workers at the construction site remain unaccounted for. Authorities haven’t commented on the cause of the collapse.
Rescue teams communicate with 11 buried individuals, but tearful families fear the worst as they await news.
“We treat everybody as still alive,” Colin Deiner, chief of disaster management for the Western Cape province, told a press conference.
Amidst despair, cheers erupted as rescue workers pulled a survivor from the rubble. They continue searching with sniffer dogs, reaching other survivors.
“We have one area where four people are in a basement and we’ve been communicating with them, so that’s quite a big operation that’s taking most of the day to get them out,” Deiner said.
So far 27 people have been retrieved from the site, in the coastal city east of Cape Town, including at least six dead.
President Cyril Ramaphosa has called for an investigation.
“The investigations to follow obviously will reveal what has transpired and what has happened, but at this point in time it’s just saving as many people as we possibly can,” company director Theuns Kruger told Reuters.
The aftermath of the South Africa building collapses underscores the urgent need for improved building safety regulations and enforcement measures.
Looking ahead, the South Africa building collapses serve as a sobering reminder of the importance of disaster preparedness and response mechanisms.
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