Rescue teams searching for dozens of construction workers missing after an apartment complex collapsed in South Africa brought out more survivors on Tuesday as they entered a second night of desperate work to find anyone alive in the wreckage.
At least seven people have been confirmed dead.
Authorities said 26 workers had now been rescued from the site where the five-storey building collapsed on Monday while under construction in George, about 400 kilometres (250 miles) east of Cape Town on South Africa’s south coast.
An additional 42 people are believed to be still buried in the debris of concrete and metal scaffolding.
Rescuers were hopeful of more people being found alive after saying earlier that they had made contact with at least 11 workers trapped in the rubble and were communicating with them.
It was not immediately clear how many of those had been rescued but five survivors were brought out on Tuesday, adding to the 21 found on Monday, according to a count provided by city authorities.
There were 75 construction workers on the site when the building collapsed.
Rescuers erupted in applause as one of the survivors was brought to the surface. They yelled at the man to “stay with us” as he was pulled out of a gap in the wreckage and put on a stretcher.
They then shouted to him: “You are outside now!”
Authorities haven’t given updated details on the extent of the injuries but said in the first few hours after the collapse that at least 11 of the workers rescued had severe injuries.
Colin Deiner, head of the provincial Western Cape disaster management services, said the search-and-rescue operation would likely take at least three days.
“We are going to give it the absolute maximum time to see how many people we can rescue,” Mr Deiner said at a press conference. “It is very, very difficult if you are working with concrete breakers and drillers close to people.”
Mr Deiner said it would take most of Tuesday to rescue the 11 workers that rescue teams were in contact with, some of whom had limbs trapped under concrete and could not move. Four of the workers are in what was the basement of the building, Mr Deiner said.
“Our big concern is entrapment for many hours, when a person’s body parts are compressed,” Mr Deiner said. “So you need to get medical help to them. We got our medics in as soon as we possibly could.”
Mr Deiner said it was possible that there were more survivors deeper in the wreckage and a process of removing layers of concrete would begin after the 11 located workers were taken out.
More than 100 emergency personnel and other responders were on the scene, using sniffer dogs to try to locate the workers.
Large cranes and other heavy lifting equipment were brought to the site to help with the rescue effort and tall spotlights were erected to allow search and rescue personnel to work through the night.
There were 75 workers on the construction site when the building collapsed, the George municipality said.
It said three teams of rescuers were working at separate sites around the collapsed building where they believed construction workers were likely to be.
Family and friends of the workers gathered at the nearby municipal offices.
“Our thoughts are with the families and all those affected who continue to wait on word of their loved ones,” George Executive Mayor Leon Van Wyk said.
Authorities were investigating what caused the tragedy and a case was opened by police, but there was no immediate information on why the building suddenly collapsed.
CCTV footage from a nearby home showed the concrete structure and metal scaffolding around it come crashing down at 2.09pm on Monday afternoon, causing a plume of dust to rise over the neighbourhood.
People came streaming out of other buildings after the collapse, with some of them screaming and shouting.
Marco Ferreira, a local representative of the Gift of the Givers nongovernmental organisation, was at the site with a team to offer support and food and drink to the rescuers on Monday.
Gift of the Givers is a charity that often helps during disasters in South Africa.
It also provided three sniffer dogs and handlers to help with the search, Mr Ferreira said.
“The situation at this stage is still very much in the rescue stages,” Mr Ferreira told the eNCA TV news channel.
“We don’t know, it’s probably going to carry on for days.
“There are some cranes there to help lift some concrete.
“But it’s not a pretty sight.”
The provincial Western Cape government sent the head of its disaster response unit from Cape Town to George to oversee the rescue operation and Western Cape premier Alan Winde, the head of the provincial government, was also at the scene.
Mr Winde said the provincial government had also sent extra resources to assist.
“All the necessary support has been offered to emergency personnel to expedite their response.
“At the moment, officials are focused on saving lives.
“This is our top priority at this stage,” he said in a statement.
The national government was being briefed on the rescue operation, Mr Winde said.
