KENYA: Several feared dead as building collapses in Nairobi

Record ID: 216284

  • Title: KENYA: Several feared dead as building collapses in Nairobi
  • Date: 15th June 2011
  • Summary: HAND DANGLING FROM INSIDE RUBBLE
  • Embargoed: 30th June 2011 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Kenya, Kenya
  • Country: Kenya
  • Topics: Disasters
  • Reuters ID: LVA95SC22Y5TJG7R47JN07POK5L8
  • Story Text: Rescue teams in Kenya continued searching for survivors in the rubble of building that collapsed on Tuesday in Nairobi.
    Bodies remained trapped after a building under construction collapsed in downtown Nairobi on Monday, killing four people, injuring at least 70 and trapping many others under mounds of heavy debris.
    The death toll is however expected to rise as an unidentified number of people are feared trapped under the debris.
    Rescue workers and passersby dug frantically by hand through piles of concrete, steel and wood to recover the dead or reach screaming victims.
    Some of those trapped are said to be communicating with relatives and friends using their mobile phones.
    "So far 5 people have been rescured one confirmed dead, we are told so many peolple are trapped inside, some are calling through the phone,
    so we are still rescuing them," said Mike Surben, a firefighter.
    Ambulances sped from the scene with the injured while bulldozers worked to clear the wreckage.
    Police fired teargas to try and disperse hundreds of onlookers who had surrounded the area hampering rescue operation.
    One dead body was seen trapped in between concrete with a hand dangling on the wall.
    There was no immediate word on the cause of the collapse of the six storey building that was under construction.
  • Copyright Holder: REUTERS
  • Copyright Notice: (c) Copyright Thomson Reuters 2011. Open For Restrictions - http://about.reuters.com/fulllegal.asp
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