Children pulled alive from rubble as ten confirmed dead in building collapse

Rescuers continued their desperate search for survivors on Saturday as police confirmed ten people were killed when a building collapsed in Nairobi. They have pulled three children alive from the rubble of the six-storey block which came down during a ferocious storm. TV footage showed volunteers and firefighters removing stones by hand and a crowd cheering as one child was removed from the rubble. “We are still hearing some voices from the collapsed building,” Kenya National Disaster Operation Centre director Colonel Nathan Kigotho, told reporters at the scene. “We don’t have the exact number of people buried in the rubble.”

We can still hear voices of people who are still inside

Red Cross spokesman Venant Ndigila

Ten bodies had been recovered from the building so far and a mother and baby could be heard beneath the rubble, said Interior Minister Joseph Ole Nkaissery. The building collapsed on Friday evening following some of the heaviest downpours since the start of the rainy season. Two neighbouring buildings in the densely-populated and poor Huruma district were declared unsafe on Saturday and were being evacuated. The rainfall has caused landslides, washed away houses and flooded roads across the Kenyan capital. Police said another seven people, including four killed when a wall toppled over, had died during the rains.

The building went down during the heavy rains, but we still want to establish if all the procedures were followed when it was constructed

Nairobi deputy governor Jonathan Mueke

nairobi collapse