KENYA/TANZANIA: RESCUE WORKERS CONTINUE SEARCH THROUGH THE NIGHT FOR VICTIMS AFTER MASSIVE BOMB BLAST WRECKS U.S. EMBASSIES IN NAIROBI AND DAR-ES-SALAAM

Record ID: 293950

  • Title: KENYA/TANZANIA: RESCUE WORKERS CONTINUE SEARCH THROUGH THE NIGHT FOR VICTIMS AFTER MASSIVE BOMB BLAST WRECKS U.S. EMBASSIES IN NAIROBI AND DAR-ES-SALAAM
  • Date: 7th August 1998
  • Summary: NAIROBI, KENYA (AUGUST 8, 1998) (RTV ACCESS ALL) 1. MV WRECKAGE OF THE UFUNDI CO-OP HOUSE BUILDING (NEXT TO U.S. EMBASSY) 0.05 2. SLV/LV KENYAN TROOPS AT SCENE/ RESCUE WORKERS IN RUBBLE (4 SHOTS) 0.20 3. SLV'S BULLDOZER AT SCENE / MEDICAL WORKERS ON RUBBLE (2 SHOTS) 0.28 4. VARIOUS OF RESCUE WORKERS IN RUBBLE (5 SHOTS) 0.47 5. WIDE OF SCENE / RESCUE WORKERS (2 SHOTS) 0.57 6. WS/LV BULLDOZER AT WORK, CLEARING RUBBLE / PEOPLE WATCHING FROM ADJOINING BUILDING (2 SHOTS) 1.07 7. SV KENYAN TROOPS/ EMBASSY PERSONNEL AT SCENE (2 SHOTS) 1.15 8. PAN/LV BULLDOZER AND CRANE AT WORK MOVING RUBBLE, LIT BY SPOTLIGHT (2 SHOTS) 1.24 9. SV KENYAN TROOPS AT SCENE / MAN SAYING YOU ARE STANDING IN THE WAY OF PEOPLE TRYING TO GET OUT, ASKING JOURNALISTS TO LEAVE (ENGLISH) (2 SHOTS) 1.40 10. VARIOUS OF RESCUE WORKERS AND KENYAN TROOPS AT SCENE (5 SHOTS) 2.06 11. WS'S NIGHT EXTERIORS OF U.S.EMBASSY BUILDING (2 SHOTS) 2.10 12. VARIOUS SPOLIGHTS ON RESCUE WORK, KENYAN TROOPS AND RESCUE WORKERS AT SCENE (3 SHOTS) 2.24 13. SLV'S U.S. FEDERAL AGENT AMONG RESCUE WORKERS (2 SHOTS) 2.34 14. VARIOUS U.S. PERSONNEL UNWINDING BARBED WIRE AROUND AREA OF RESCUE WORK (4 SHOTS) 2.51 DAR-ES-SALAAM, TANZANIA (AUGUST 7, 1998) (RTV ACCESS ALL) 15. VARIOUS INJURED AMERICAN MARINE WITH GUN IN STREET OUTSIDE U.S. EMBASSY (3 SHOTS) 3.13 16. VARIOUS OF PEOPLE TAKING IN MEDICAL SUPPLIES TO EMBASSY (2 SHOTS) 3.23 17. SV U.S. MARINES TALKING TO TANZANIAN SECURITY TROOPS 3.33 18. SLV MARINE STANDING OUTSIDE DAMGED EMBASSY 3.37 19. VARIOUS TANZANIAN SECURITY TROOPS TRYING TO SET UP CORDON NEAR EMBASSY (2 SHOTS) 3.48 20. ZOOM IN LARGE WOMAN LEAVING EMBASSY COMPOUND BY LADDER 3.58 21. VARIOUS DEMOLISHED CARS/BICYCLES OUTSIDE EMBASSY (5 SHOTS) 4.32 22. SV OFFICIAL TALKING TO U.S. MARINE ZOOM OUT TO WIDE OF DAMAGED BUILDING 4.48 23. ZOOM OUT FIREMEN AT WORK / U.S. MARINES/LV EMBASSY EXTERIOR (3 SHOTS) 5.16 24. SV PATIENT ON STRETCHER IN HOSPITAL 5.25 25. SCU DR UMMA GROB EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR OF THE MUHIMBIL ORTHOEPEDIC INSTITUTE: "AFTER THE BOMBING, THE MUHIMBILI MEDICAL CENTRE RECEIVED 54 CASULATIES AND WE AT THE OTHOEPEDIC INSTITUTE RECEIVED 15 INPATIENTS WHEREBY THREE WERE VERY BADLY INJURED MULTIPLE INJURY PATIENTS ONE PARALYSED THE OTHERS ARE HAVING MULTIPLE OPEN FRACTURES (ENGLISH) 5.48 26. ZOOM IN EXTERIOR OF MEDICAL CENTRE 5.56 Initials Script is copyright Reuters Limited. All rights reserved
  • Embargoed: 22nd August 1998 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: NAIROBI, KENYA / DAR-ES-SALAAM, TANZANIA
  • City:
  • Country: AFRICA Tanzania Kenya
  • Reuters ID: LVA9KGBP510ZL990ZHTENHAJFMPX
  • Story Text: Rescue workers in the Kenyan capital have been digging through the night to pull free survivors and bodies from a massive bomb blast outside the U.S.embassy that killed up to 80.

    After a frantic day of rescue work that started on Friday (August 7) morning minutes after a car bomb blast, excavation work continued through the night into Saturday morning (August 8) and workers were getting nearer to freeing some victims, witnesses said.

    Four or five survivors were located alive but trapped inside a lift under tonnes of rubble at Ufundi Co-op House, rescue workers said.Witnesses said they had made contact with the survivors.

    Scores were entombed when a car bomb blast destroyed Ufundi house and caused extensive damage to the U.S.embassy.

    The dead included seven U.S.citizens and eight more were missing.

    A U.S.Air Force C-141 transport plane left Germany for Nairobi late on Friday with medical supplies and personnel for an investigation.A similar operation was planned in Tanzania.

    Scores were buried under the rubble of Ufundi house, which abuts the U.S.embassy in Nairobi and contains offices and a secretarial college.

    The embassy in Dar es Salaam stands alone around two miles (kilometres) north of the city centre.

    Rescue workers finished the job of clearing the U.S.

    embassy in Nairobi by afternoon, but at Ufundi house the work continued under flood lights throughout the night.

    Police, army and Red Cross workers replaced hundreds of volunteers who swarmed onto the building minutes after the blast.

    Trained rescue personnel who penetrated the building's shattered roof located four survivors trapped in a lift, witnesses said.

    They established communication with the survivors, at least two of whom were female, and were working to free them from the rubble.

    At the same time the Kenya army, on the orders of a U.S.

    agent with the Federal Bureau of Investigation, ordered journalists back from the streets adjoining the destroyed buildings, witnesses said.

    By 4.15 a.m.(0115 GMT) the survivors were yet to be pulled clear.

    Eighteen hours after the explosion a frenzied rescue effort involving hundreds had slowed to a crawl.

    Heavy lifting equipment was brought in mid-afternoon on Friday making redundant scores of volunteers many not even equipped even with protective gloves.

    When the rescue effort began almost as many survivors as corpses were being pulled from the wreckage.Yet the grim fact remained that survivors were largely being pulled from the building's top stories.

    The lower stories, squashed under layers of rubble, were yet to be explored.
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