A nine-storey building has collapsed in the Philippines’ Angeles City – rescuers have heard voices as they continue to search the rubble for at least 21 missing people
At least 21 people are missing after a nine-story building under construction in the Philippines collapsed on Sunday morning.
The building collapsed after a fierce thunderstorm in Angeles City in the country’s Pampanga province. Rescuers have been “hearing voices” in the rubble, while 24 workers managed to dash to safety or were rescued, police and other officials said.
More than 100 police and other government personnel were scrambling to rescue those believed to still be trapped in the rubble, police Brig. Gen. Jess Mendez said.
Mendez and other officials at the scene said there were no immediate reports of deaths but some of those who got out safely sustained injuries.
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Most of the 21 people who remained unaccounted for are believed to be workers at the building, according to Francis Pangilinan, who heads Angeles City’s disaster mitigation office and was at the scene.
Two other people, including a Malaysian tourist, were injured when their lodgings were hit by debris from the collapsed building, officials said.
Rescuers including firefighters, police and disaster-response teams used their hands and sniffer dogs in a dangerous scramble to search for the trapped survivors, Public Works Secretary Vinzon Dizon said.
“There are some signs of life … There are voices that are being heard,” Dizon said, adding that rescuers were moving with extreme caution. “It’s a very very unstable site and the priority is to get the people out.”
Angeles City hosted one of the largest US Air Force bases outside of the American mainland until it closed in the early 1990s, helping develop Angeles and outlying cities and towns into entertainment and commercial hubs in the main northern Philippine region of Luzon.
