One of the patients rescued from the collapsed building in George in the Western Cape has died in hospital.
This brings the number of deaths to nine since the incident on Monday afternoon.
The George municipality confirmed on Friday that a patient in a critical condition had been declared dead.
The search and rescue operation has reached 88-hours with 44 people still missing. The estimated number of people on-site at the time of the incident is 88. Of the rescued patients, 15 are critical, nine deceased, six have life-threatening injuries and seven sustained minor injuries.
The municipality said big earth-moving machinery arrived on Thursday night, including two five on excavators, three 20-ton excavators with hammers and buckets, cube front-end loader and trucks for extraction and clearing.
George building collapse: Death toll rises to 9 as hospitalised victim dies
Image: Werner Hills
One of the patients rescued from the collapsed building in George in the Western Cape has died in hospital.
This brings the number of deaths to nine since the incident on Monday afternoon.
The George municipality confirmed on Friday that a patient in a critical condition had been declared dead.
The search and rescue operation has reached 88-hours with 44 people still missing. The estimated number of people on-site at the time of the incident is 88. Of the rescued patients, 15 are critical, nine deceased, six have life-threatening injuries and seven sustained minor injuries.
The municipality said big earth-moving machinery arrived on Thursday night, including two five on excavators, three 20-ton excavators with hammers and buckets, cube front-end loader and trucks for extraction and clearing.
"The rescue operation continues to be a multi-agency approach involving local excavation contractors and the district roads engineer," it said.
"Despite the introduction of large machinery, rescue techniques will still be applied meticulously and sensitively by the highly skilled and experienced disaster management team."
TimesLIVE
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