Emergency workers to look for more survivors overnight

M on the Western Cape in George four survivors have been rescued from the rubble uh seven people have died and around 40 others remain unaccounted for after a multistory apartment block under construction caved in yesterday afternoon right for the latest on that story let's take you back live there uh to our reporter karinda Jack Mahan keeping watch over the processes Rescue Mission rescue operations still continuing tonight karinda certainly this rescue operation will continue until this morning and Beyond until they can actually access the survivors who they can hear right now you can see um Rescuers are at the top of part of the rubble where they are removing rubble from one side handing it down they formed a chain to ultimately try and access two survivors they believe they can hear so far right now at the scene there are six voices coming from this Rubble three on the uh complete right side where earlier we saw one person being rescued so three people came from or We rescued from that uh that scene and then right now where The Rescuers are uh on top of this this um what used to be essentially a basement parking lot um they believe there are two survivors then the nearby they believe that there was one Survivor and that is why there's this process to remove Rubble as fast as they can and um ensure that they can access unfortunately we are not able to be here we're told to sort of stay behind this truck um but right now what's also happening is that they need more Personnel on the ground there are two more than 200 emergency service members right now on this ground okay let's move police officers not happy with where we are um so we've got to sort of just move a little bit here but right now also it is an issue with regards to the death toll um we know that seven people have died and what Rescuers say is this is still a rescue mission they don't want to say it's a recovery Mission as yet they want to work especially when they get to that 48 hour mark that is critical um and another aspect that one of The Rescuers have pointed out is that um those who are beneath this Rubble are dehydrated and a person can live without water for up to 3 days but considering that those stuck under the rubble are in possibly injured in a state of panic in a state of claustrophobia uh scared and so it's a Race Against Time to try and dig beneath this concrete Mound and try and get to the survivors at sometimes even using hands just to remove the Rocks here so this Mission will go on for quite a while uh and right now from what we hear six people there are six voices and they're going to try and get you that between 7 and 900 p.m. today we saw four rescues and those rescues sort of brought some hope sort of re-energized the team on the ground because uh essentially it was their work a culmination of hours of digging hours of searching 17 hours actually to find one um dvin safer the son of Dion who we spoke to earlier uh specifically we've been telling really his story because his father has been speaking about about the trauma to just try and listen to to his son's voice some of the voice notes his son putting his phone off and back on Surviving beneath this Rubble for 35 hours now in hospital recovering uh and so many other survivors possibly feel the same kind of shock as well so that's what's happening on the ground we're going to keep you updated as well we'll be back up at 6 a.m. tomorrow from the scene from the hospital as well just to give you all angles of this tragedy what Rescuers themselves has said uh one of uh it's a serious tragedy that has befallen not just the city but this country considering the magnitude of what has happening happened with regards to the structural collapse and of course after this is uh complete after we have seen some more progress here towards the middle the end of the week we expect more discussion about the accountability process these are the trucks that are uh collecting the rubble and then they will move on and there are many such construction trucks around us so that is currently what is happening right now but certainly again even Deon uh safer son saying that he wants an investigation he wants those who are found to be negligent in this building itself to be held accountable because he sadly lost many of his friends seven people are dead at least 40 at this point we understand are still trapped beneath the rubble and it's a Race Against Time to get to them Karina Jack moan live for us they giving us the latest from the George building collapse

Channel: Newzroom Afrika

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Id: zV-lAOG_oEQ

Length: 5min 22sec (322 seconds)

Published: Tue May 07 2024