Building collapse kills 11 and injures more than 70

A FIVE-STOREY building collapsed yesterday in central Nairobi with more than 280 construction workers inside, killing at least 11 people and injuring more than 70, witnesses and officials said.

Rescuers dug into the rubble with their bare hands while the injured were loaded into any available car to be taken to hospitals. The hand of one trapped person could be seen waving for help from under a concrete beam.

Tens of thousands of people ran to the site, clogging roads and climbing atop the debris to watch the rescue. Riot police used truncheons to beat back the crowds and to clear roads for emergency vehicles

At the same time, however, police called for anyone with emergency training to come to the scene and help the rescue. Kenyatta General Hospital appealed for blood donations.

Dozens of soldiers, firefighters, police officers and Red Cross workers responded, using crow bars and metal cutters to free those trapped.

By nightfall, most of the onlookers had gone home and rescuers set up lights and began digging for survivors at five different places around the building.

Meanwhile, a large bus with apparently failed brakes crashed through the medical triage area, injuring one medic and slamming into a parked ambulance.

Earlier, Health Minister Charity Ngilu had appealed for calm. “We have doctors and health workers who have been mobilised, so it is now under control,” she said at the scene.