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Woman pulled alive from rubble of Nairobi building after six days Woman pulled alive from rubble of Nairobi building after six days
(about 3 hours later)
Rescue workers have pulled a woman from the rubble of a building in Kenya’s capital after she was trapped alive for six days following its collapse, witnesses said. A Kenyan woman has been rescued after being trapped for six days in the rubble of a collapsed building in Nairobi.
The woman was carried to an ambulance as onlookers cheered in Nairobi’s Huruma district. At least 36 people were killed when the residential building crumbled on Friday night after days of heavy rain. A crowd applauded as the woman was carried away on a stretcher, covered by a blanket and with an oxygen tank by her side, to a Kenya Red Cross ambulance. The rescue was broadcast live on Kenyan television.
The woman, who was receiving oxygen and had been connected to an intravenous drip by doctors, survived in a pocket of broken masonry. Rescue workers used their hands and power tools to reach her. Before military engineers managed to break through the slabs of concrete that had trapped her, medics had managed to give the woman oxygen and intravenously administer water and glucose, Kenya’s Disaster Management Unit said.
Dozens of people are still listed as missing, but Kenya Red Cross officials said it was not clear if they were caught in the collapse or had survived but not been traced. “This is a miracle,” said Pius Masai, the head of the unit.
Earlier this week officials said there was little chance of finding any more survivors, although a baby was pulled out of the wreckage on Tuesday, dehydrated but with no sign of other injuries. The baby was reunited with her father, but Masai said the baby’s mother was among the dead. The woman was given oxygen while trapped in small corner of her room, said Abbas Gullet, head of the Kenya Red Cross.
Kenya’s interior ministry said the building, close to a river, was earmarked for demolition, but local authorities had not acted on the order. “We are very happy that even after six days someone has been found alive,” Gullet said.
The building’s collapse was the latest such disaster in a rapidly expanding city struggling to build enough homes. Several other buildings in Nairobi have collapsed in recent years but without such a high death toll. The death toll from the disaster has risen to 36 and 70 people remain missing, he said.
A nearly six-month-old baby was rescued on Tuesday, raising hopes that more survivors would be found. The infant was found in a sink, unharmed, four days after the building collapsed.
With housing in high demand in Nairobi, some unscrupulous developers bypass regulations to cut costs and maximise profits.
The two owners of the collapsed building were released on $5,000 bail on Wednesday as they await formal charges from police.
President Uhuru Kenyatta last year ordered an audit of all the country’s buildings to see if they are up to code. The National Construction Authority found that 58% of buildings in Nairobi are unfit for habitation. Most of Nairobi’s 4 million people live in low-income areas or slums.