Off the wire
• Armenia mulls recognizing independence of Nagorno-Karabakh  • IMF to review disbursement of bailout funds for Ukraine  • Roundup: Pakistani stocks extend robust rally over hopes of emerging market upgrade  • Urgent: Thunderstorm kills 6 Hindu pilgrims in India  • Russia, China remain Slovenia's biggest trade partners outside EU in 2015  • Canadian province rejects Alberta's request for help to fight fire  • Roundup: Indonesia initiates trilateral agreement to cope with security challenges in part of Southeast Asian waters  • Jihadist groups unleash broad offensive south of Syria's Aleppo, military responds  • China, Russia agree more parliamentary cooperation  • U.S. initial jobless claims increase to 274,000  
You are here: 　 Home

Roundup: Woman rescued 6 days after building collapse in Kenyan capital

Xinhua, May 5, 2016 Adjust font size:

A woman was found alive on Thursday under the debris of a residential building that collapsed six days ago in the Kenyan capital, Nairobi.

The National Disaster Management Unit incident commander, Pius Masai, said doctors at the scene attended to the woman immediately after she was rescued.

"The woman was rushed to hospital since she is weak but is safe. She has no physical injuries and she is talking," Masai told journalists.

He said the woman had survived in a pocket of a broken building material.

There was excitement at the scene for the rescue.

The six-storey building in Nairobi's poor Huruma district collapsed on Friday night in heavy rain.

Death toll has reached 33 while 137 people have been pulled out. Close to 80 are still believed to be trapped under the rubber, according to the National Disaster Management Unit.

Rescue workers are still trying to gain access to the area near where the woman had been found.

Masai said the search and rescue operations would continue "delicately" to avoid causing further harm to those possibly alive beneath the debris.

A baby girl was found alive in a basin, wrapped in a blanket beneath the rubble on Tuesday morning, three days after the collapse.

The baby is in Kenyatta National Hospital and has been reunited with her father.

Masai however said only seven of the bodies found so far had been identified as few relatives turned up.

The building was earmarked for demolition in 2014. Residents say its owners have regularly used "court orders" to block Nairobi County authorities from pulling it down.

Reports further indicate the structure didn't have planning permission.

Five people, charged with manslaughter over the collapse, earlier appeared in court and was then released on 10,000 U.S. dollar bail pending further inquiries.

Those charged include officials from the National Construction Authority and Nairobi City Hall's inspectorate department, the two brothers who own the building and an engineer in charge of the site. Endit