Rescuers yesterday dug out victims buried alive a day after a
building collapsed in central Nairobi, killing at least 12 and
injuring more than 100.
Rescue workers pulled out one of three people who Kenyan police
said were still trapped, and officials fear that many more may
still be found dead. A rescue worker who fell into the wreckage
overnight was also pulled out.
The rescuers, including foreign experts from the US and Israel,
drilled holes to provide oxygen but were forced to move carefully
to prevent a further collapse after the newly constructed six-story
building fell on Monday.
"We had seen eight people and we have removed four, so now there
are 12 dead," Kenya police spokesperson Jaspher Ombati said, adding
that 102 people had been injured.
Earlier he had listed the death toll at 14, and he gave no
explanation when asked why it had fallen. At least three bodies
could be seen and the smell of the dead began to emanate from the
wreckage, a reporter said.
Kenyan President Mwai Kibaki cut short his trip to an African
Union summit in Sudan to fly home yesterday and take charge of the
rescue operation.
An elite Israeli military search and rescue team jetted in
yesterday and took control of the scene, as they did after the
deadly 1998 bombing of the US Embassy in Nairobi and of an
Israeli-owned hotel near the coastal resort of Mombasa in 2002.
"Definitely we will find dead people on the site," Major Avi
Berman of the Israeli rescue team told reporters.
US Navy "Seabee" engineers had also flown in yesterday from
Djibouti, and 10 civilian experts from the UK were also due to
arrive.
Shoddy construction was suspected of causing the collapse in a
bustling commercial area near the central business district. In a
city where graft runs rampant, many buildings are thrown up without
the proper licensing or inspections.
Construction workers are often poorly paid untrained laborers
known as watu wa mukono, which literally means "people of
the hands" in Swahili.
Asked how many unlicensed buildings were in east Africa's
largest city, Nairobi City Planning Committee Chairman David
Kaberere told a news conference: "I think there should be many.
Fortunately they are not falling down."
(China Daily January 25, 2006)
