Voice calls out from under rubble at George building site

Rescue workers continued their search with renewed vigour when they heard a voice under the rubble at the George Neo Victoria multi-storey apartment block shortly after noon today.

The strategy of looking for survivors at the back of the site, where stairs were located, paid off when one of the 39 people still trapped in the rubble called out.

The rescue workers were elated at this sign of life. However, the person had not yet been rescued at the time of publishing.

This morning, rescuers started opening up the area at the back, hoping that the stairs had provided space and protection for those trapped.

The last person to be rescued was pulled from the concrete and steel debris at about 01:30 today.

At 14:09 today it was exactly 48 hours since the building, with a basement, above-ground parking and four storeys of flats under construction, imploded in a cloud of dust and debris.

Rescue workers are making their way through four of five unstable concrete slabs to reach possible survivors – a dangerous task for those trapped inside and the rescuers.

The next 24 hours are crucial as the international standard of a rescue operation is three days. After that, the status normally switches to that of retrieval, as the chance of finding survivors drastically diminishes.

The video below, recorded by Group Editors reporter Michelle Pienaar, shows rescue workers and sniffer dogs continuing with their unrelenting efforts to locate those still buried under the rubble.

Earlier today, the Minister of Local Government, Anton Bredell, spoke to Pienaar and eNCA reporter Kevin Brandt, explaining what’s happening at the site.

The minister said the teams are still in search-and-rescue mode and have been extracting people from three corners of the site.

The workers were marking parts of the concrete slabs in red, where they wanted to cut blocks out to make more space. The minister said they have to be careful, and the marks help them to see if the concrete is moving, as only building rubble is keeping it in place. Everyone knows which mark is theirs and they know what to do and where to drill and cut.

Watch Pienaar’s video of the interview:

Pienaar also spoke to George Mayor Leon van Wyk about the current status of the rescue operation.

Watch the interview:

At the time of publishing, 36 people had been retrieved from the rubble. Seven are deceased, 16 are critical, six have life-threatening injuries and seven have minor injuries.

Another video from the site: