Five dead, dozens of workers trapped in collapsed building in South Africa

“We are in contact with eleven people,” said Colin Deiner, head of rescue operations, including “four who are stuck in a basement.” In all, around fifty workers are still missing.

The priority of the rescuers is to remove all the people located, which could take a good part of the day, he said during a press conference.

Then, "we will begin to destratify" the rubble, that is to say clear floor by floor, because "there could still be survivors" underneath, he added, hoping to be able to tackle this step during the day too.

During this press briefing, the provincial Premier, Alan Winde, announced an additional death among those removed from the rubble, increasing the death toll from five to six.

In all, 27 people were taken out of the rubble and most of them hospitalized.

“We are in communication with some of the people” trapped under the rubble, provincial minister Anton Bredell explained earlier. “But it’s very tricky to remove the tons of concrete” that enclose them.

“We will continue to work until we get them out of there,” he assured.

The rescuers, divided into teams, concentrated their efforts on “three distinct areas” of the rubble of the collapsed building, explained the town hall.

Open investigation

President Cyril Ramaphosa offered “his deepest condolences” to the loved ones of those who died and “his thoughts” to the families of workers still trapped.

“A work team of 75 people was on the site at the time of the collapse” of this residential building under construction, Monday shortly after 14:00 p.m. local time (12:00 p.m. GMT), said the spokesperson for the municipality, Chantel Edwards.

The construction companies involved on the site worked with the authorities to establish a precise list of people who have not yet been heard from, specifies the city.

The five-story building, which included an underground parking lot, collapsed for reasons that are still unclear. A police investigation was opened.

Photos of the disaster show a flattened construction site around which numerous emergency services are positioned. The roof of the building remains visible, shaky, above a pile of rubble.

The site was isolated by a security perimeter to protect local residents. Under strong floodlights, more than a hundred rescuers, aided by backhoes and excavators, as well as teams of sniffer dogs, worked tirelessly all night.

An operational post was set up to coordinate the various emergency services which went to the site, coming from several surrounding towns and even from the city of Cape Town, located more than 400 km west of the disaster.

Families and loved ones were invited to meet at the town hall, near the collapsed building, where they were taken care of, in particular by social workers, the municipality said.

“Our thoughts are with the families and all those affected, who continue to wait for news of their loved ones,” Mayor Leon Van Wyk said in a statement.

George is a medium-sized town of around 160.000 inhabitants, located near the very touristy Garden Route, which runs along the south coast of the country.

Its town hall is run by the country's leading opposition party, the Democratic Alliance (DA), which also governs the Western Cape province.