There’s elation on site of a building that collapsed in George in the Western Cape after a survivor who had been trapped under rubble was safely brought out.
The man had been trapped for 118 hours.
The multi-storey building was under construction when it collapsed on Monday.
The death toll now stands at 13 and 81 people were on site at the time.
Speaking on site, Western Cape Head of Disaster Management Colin Deiner explains how the recovery process unfolded.
“One of our dogs, Willie, the dog handler , indicate and then we spoke down there, and we actually heard the person. He was quite alert, he was sounding okay; he told us he had some weight on his legs, so we were very scared if we released him too quickly, so we got surgeons in to make sure they worked against that, and then we found another hole further closer to him. We broke the hole open and cut the rebar out, normally, we cut him out 2 hours earlier than we thought we would.”
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Meanwhile, Western Cape Premier Alan Winde says the recovery operation is continuing.
“Everybody has been wanting a miracle here in George, and 116 hours into the next layer, someone is still alive, and they are communicating with him, they are busy again, he is obviously trapped underneath this rubble, the medical people are inside, they will be working now to make sure that we can as quickly as possible extract him, it is obviously going to take some time. but we really are excited. There’s a whole new energy on site at the moment.”
BREAKING: Rescue workers have found a survivor under the rubble of the #GeorgeBuildingCollapse. The man is a tiler who was presumably working on the 3rd floor of the building. WC Head of Disaster, Colin Deiner says it will take time to retrieve him. #sabcnews pic.twitter.com/UOinlTsb6d
— Sphiwe Hobasi (@MrCow_man) May 11, 2024
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