The site of a building collapse in George, South Africa, on Tuesday.
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The site of a building collapse in George, South Africa, on Tuesday.
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CAPE TOWN, South Africa – Rescue teams worked through the night searching for dozens of construction workers buried for more than 12 hours under concrete rubble after a multi-storey apartment complex under construction collapsed in a coastal city in South Africa.
Authorities said early Tuesday that the death toll had risen to five, while 49 workers remained missing under the rubble of the building that collapsed on Monday afternoon. The authorities said that 21 other workers were rescued from under the rubble and taken to various hospitals, and at least 11 of them were seriously injured.
The collapse occurred in George, about 400 kilometers (250 miles) east of Cape Town on the southern coast of South Africa.
More than 100 emergency personnel and other responders were at the scene, using sniffer dogs to try to locate the workers, some of whom were feared buried under huge slabs of concrete that fell on them when the five-storey building collapsed.
Large cranes and other heavy lifting equipment were brought to the site to assist in the rescue efforts and high floodlights were erected to allow search and rescue personnel to work throughout the night.
The George Municipality said there were 75 workers at the construction site when the building collapsed. She added that three teams of rescuers are working in separate locations around the collapsed building, where they believe construction workers are likely to be located.
Families and friends of the workers gathered at nearby municipal offices.
“Our thoughts are with the families and all those affected who continue to wait for news of their loved ones,” George Town Executive Mayor Leon van Wyk said.
Scene of a building collapse in George, South Africa, on Tuesday.
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Scene of a building collapse in George, South Africa, on Tuesday.
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The authorities are investigating the cause of the tragedy and the police have opened a case, but no immediate information was available about why the building suddenly collapsed. CCTV footage from a nearby house showed the concrete structure and metal scaffolding surrounding it collapsing at 2.09pm on Monday, causing a plume of dust to rise above the neighbourhood.
People came out of other buildings after the collapse, some screaming and yelling.
Marco Ferreira, a local representative of the NGO Gift of the Givers, was on site with a team to provide support, food and drink to the rescuers on Monday. Gift of the Givers is a charity that often provides assistance during disasters in South Africa. It also provided three police dogs and trainers to assist in the search, Ferreira said.
“The situation at this point is still in the rescue phase,” Ferreira told eNCA TV news channel. “We don’t know, it will probably continue for several days. There are some cranes out there to help lift some concrete. But it’s not a pretty view.”
The Western Cape provincial government sent the head of its disaster response unit from Cape Town to George to supervise the rescue operation, and Western Cape Premier Alan Winde, the head of the provincial government, was also at the scene.
The provincial government has also sent additional resources to help, Wende said.
“All necessary support has been provided to emergency personnel to speed up their response. At this time, officials are focused on saving lives. This is our top priority at this stage,” Wendy said in a statement.
Wendy said the national government had been informed of the rescue operation.
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