Three feared buried under rubble after German building collapse

BERLIN - German rescue teams with sniffer dogs were on May 19 searching for three people feared missing under rubble following the collapse of a historic apartment building with holiday flats.

Search teams in the eastern town of Goerlitz were working by hand to search for signs of life in the pile of bricks and broken timber, fearing the use of heavy equipment could ignite gas from severed lines.

The police said the three presumed missing under the debris were “two women, aged 25 and 26, of Romanian nationality, and a 47-year-old man of German and Bulgarian nationality”.

“Rescue operations and the search for the missing persons are continuing,” they said in a statement a day after the collapse, adding that the cause of the disaster was still being investigated.

Two other people were initially feared missing, but it later turned out they had decided to go for a walk before checking into their flat, thereby avoiding the collapse, Bild daily reported.

Goerlitz – Germany’s easternmost town, on the Polish border – is known for its historic buildings that span Gothic, Renaissance, Baroque and Art Deco styles, and has often been used as a location for movie shoots. AFP