The death toll rose to four in the collapse of a building under construction near the Philippine capital, with more than a dozen people still believed missing, authorities said.
Two workers pinned beneath the wreckage were found alive after the nine-storey structure gave way Sunday, hitting a nearby hotel and killing a Malaysian guest.
But the two workers trapped at the site in Angeles, which is north of the capital Manila, died despite rescue efforts.
Crews pulled another corpse from the rubble yesterday, but it was not immediately clear if the unidentified body belonged to a person listed among the missing, rescuers said in an updated toll.
Due to the uncertainty, authorities said approximately 17 other people were still considered missing, mostly construction workers who were sleeping at the building site when disaster struck.
“It’s very difficult, it is breaking my heart to wait for something uncertain,” Lea Casilao, girlfriend of a missing construction worker, said, crying as she recounted how she slept alone at a local government building overnight Sunday.
Stephanie Batar and her mother Noby said they only learnt about the accident on social media from their home in nearby Bulacan province early yesterday and have been unable to contact her 64-year-old father who had been hired only weeks earlier on a six-month contract.
“I couldn’t breathe. I couldn’t stand. It’s very painful and we did not know what to do,” the daughter said.
The cause of the collapse is not known. — AFP
