Rescuers search for 20 missing at collapsed Philippine building

MANILA – Rescuers were racing on May 24 to free two workers pinned under a building that collapsed in northern Philippines, killing a Malaysian man and leaving 20 people missing.

The search for survivors continued as night fell, with firemen shining small lights into the rubble for signs of life.

Twenty-six people have been rescued so far after the nine-storey building collapsed in Angeles City, 80km north of capital Manila.

The disaster also damaged a nearby hotel and killed a 65-year-old Malaysian guest, Mr Mohd Rezal Abdullah, from Malaysia’s Sabah state, officials said.

Acting Philippine fire chief Rico Kwan Tiu said the man managed to communicate with rescuers by phone while pinned under a hotel wall shortly after the accident occurred.

“Unfortunately, when we retrieved him just now, he was already lifeless,” Mr Kwan Tiu added.

“We will continue the rescue until such time that we are able to locate those who were trapped. There are still people alive. I am certain.”

Rescuers conducting the initial assessment “heard someone crying out in pain” from under the rubble, Bureau of Fire Protection regional spokeswoman Maria Leah Sajili told reporters.

Metropolitan Manila Development Authority general manager Nicolas Torre said the authorities were sending rescue equipment and police dogs to aid the rescue.

“We also deployed life monitors, listening devices and also our rescue spreaders to help the rescuers since much debris needs to be cut and lifted to locate people,” Mr Torre said.

Local policemen and firefighters deployed in the area said 23 people were possibly trapped in the site.

Piles of broken poles and debris covered the site more than 12 hours later as the search for survivors continued under the hot tropical sun, according to AFP journalists at the scene. The rubble was wrapped in green protective plastic sheeting commonly seen at construction sites.

The cause of the collapse is yet to be determined.

Angeles City Mayor Carmelo Lazatin told reporters that “almost all of (those inside the collapsed building) were asleep because this happened in the early hours of the morning”.

Video clips posted by rescuers on the regional fire bureau’s Facebook page showed a fireman using a power tool to free a man in a blue shirt who moaned in pain beneath a scaffolding of metal tubes and plyboard.

“Relax, brother,” the rescuer, a fireman, is heard comforting the victim.

Another clip showed firemen in their orange helmets and clothing inserting themselves through narrow gaps among rubble in an attempt to find other trapped workers.

“We are trying to rescue two (workers). They are conscious but pinned underneath. Hopefully, we will be able to get them out before dark,” Mr Kwan Tiu said.

‘Loud noise’

Local delivery rider James Bernardo, 30, earlier told AFP by telephone he had just dropped off food on the same street when the disaster occurred.

“A few seconds later, there was suddenly a loud noise in the area and when I looked, I realised that (the building) had already collapsed,” Mr Bernardo said.

“Thank God I’m safe.”

A video clip taken by Mr Bernardo and verified by AFP showed a giant pile of twisted steel beams, power pylons and slabs of concrete blocking the street as fellow witnesses took photographs with their phones.

In the clip, Mr Bernardo can be heard saying: “We thought it was an earthquake, but it turned out it was the building (collapsing).”

City information officer Jay Pelayo said that the building’s walls and scaffolding had buckled, likely trapping people in a pile of debris.

“There are big chunks of concrete and we need equipment to lift them up. That is what’s challenging for the rescue right now,” Mr Pelayo said.

Initial reports suggested 24 people had been rescued from the rubble as well as two from an apartment-style hotel that was hit when the building came down, the city government said.

Interviews to determine the survivors’ identities were ongoing, Mr Pelayo said. AFP