IN PICS | ‘We’re trying to save as many people as we can’: developer helping rescuers at site of George building collapse

07 May 2024 - 14:17 By Reuters
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Families have gathered near the site where construction workers have been trapped under a building that collapsed in George on Monday.
Families have gathered near the site where construction workers have been trapped under a building that collapsed in George on Monday.
Image: Esa Alexander/Reuters

Rescuers are using cranes, drills and their bare hands in a bid to reach dozens of people still trapped beneath the rubble after a multistorey building being built in George, on the Garden Route, collapsed on Monday, killing at least six people.

Of the 75 workers who had been on the construction site, 48 remained unaccounted for on Tuesday. Authorities have not said what caused the building to collapse.

While rescue teams are able to communicate with 11 people buried in the wreckage, families who gathered waiting for news of their loved ones were in tears, fearing the worst.

“We are treating everybody as still alive,” Colin Deiner, chief of disaster management for the Western Cape province, told a press conference.

Rescuers celebrate after saving a construction worker trapped under a building that collapsed in George.
Rescuers celebrate after saving a construction worker trapped under a building that collapsed in George.
Image: Esa Alexander/Reuters

There have been moments of hope. People clapped and cheered as rescue workers pulled a person out alive from among the broken concrete slabs and twisted steel reinforcements.

They have also made contact with other survivors as they scour the site with sniffer dogs.

“We have one area where four people are in a basement, and we’ve been communicating with them, so that’s quite a big operation [and it’s] taking most of the day to get them out,” Deiner said.

A woman comforts a family member of a construction worker near the site where rescuers are searching for people trapped under a building that collapsed in George.
A woman comforts a family member of a construction worker near the site where rescuers are searching for people trapped under a building that collapsed in George.
Image: Esa Alexander/Reuters

President Cyril Ramaphosa has called for an investigation.

Liatel Developments, the contracted builder of the structure, said it was trying to assist those on the site of the five-storey residential building.

“The investigations to follow obviously will reveal what has happened, but at this point in time [we are just trying to save] as many people as we possibly can,” company director Theuns Kruger said.

CCTV footage showed a cloud of dust as the building crumbled.

Rescue workers remove rubble from the site.
Rescue workers remove rubble from the site.
Image: Esa Alexander/Reuters
A family member of one of the construction workers trapped under the collapsed building in George.
A family member of one of the construction workers trapped under the collapsed building in George.
Image: Esa Alexander/Reuters

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