A perimeter wall has collapsed at a construction site in Nairobi, killing three workers and leaving several others missing, officials have said.
The wall came down at about 11:30 on Saturday morning at the Riverside Square site on Riverside Drive, in the Ngara area of the city. It is the second deadly building collapse in the Nairobi area in two days.
Wall Collapses at Riverside Square
The stone perimeter retaining wall gave way at an active construction site on Riverside Drive, opposite the Grand Residence. The main building was still at the excavation and foundation stage, with no upper floors erected when the wall came down.
Thirty-nine workers were registered on duty at the site when the wall collapsed, according to Nairobi City County. The sudden collapse buried workers under concrete and rubble, and rescue teams were called to the scene within minutes.
Kenya Red Cross Action Teams were sent to the site with ambulances, and county disaster management teams joined the rescue effort. The area around the site was cordoned off so that rescue work could continue safely.
3 Dead, 11 Injured, Workers Still Missing
Three workers have been confirmed dead. Eleven others were pulled alive from the rubble with severe injuries and taken to nearby hospitals by EMS Kenya ambulances.
Eleven more workers were confirmed safe and stable at the scene. But the whereabouts of the remaining workers is not yet known. The county’s situation report says eight workers are still unaccounted for, while other reports put the number at 11.
Rescue teams are checking nearby hospitals to see whether any of the missing workers were admitted, and are continuing to search the rubble at the site.
The death toll may still rise. In the afternoon, rescue teams pulled three more bodies from the rubble, according to Uzalendo News, which would take the toll to six. NTV Kenya also reported a fourth victim who died while receiving treatment in hospital. These reports have not been confirmed by the county, so the official toll remains three.
Rescue Operation Under Way
Rescue teams have been working through the day to find the missing workers, with debris still covering parts of the construction area. Nairobi County Chief Officer for Disaster Management and Coordination Bramwell Simiyu confirmed the figures in a situation report from the scene.
A construction worker, Kevin Amadi, who was on site when the wall came down, gave a first-hand account of the collapse to NTV Kenya as rescue teams continued to search for his missing colleagues.
The Kenya Red Cross said its teams were responding at the scene, and county officials said search and rescue operations would continue until every worker on the site register had been accounted for.
Second Collapse in Two Days
The Riverside collapse comes just a day after another building under construction collapsed in Syokimau, along Mombasa Road near the Nairobi Standard Gauge Railway Terminus. Six workers were killed in that collapse on Friday morning, and five others were pulled alive from the rubble.
That building, which was eight storeys high, came down after its top slab gave way while workers were carrying out concreting works. The county said a full investigation would follow once rescue operations at both sites are complete.
Nairobi County said its Department of Built Environment and Urban Planning will work with the National Construction Authority to carry out a structural assessment of the Riverside site and establish whether the project complied with construction regulations.
Read more of our Trend & Society coverage.
For a similar collapse in New York, read Brooklyn Building Collapse Kills 8, Rescue Continues.
Sources: Daily Nation, Tuko, The Kenya Times, Uzalendo News, NTV Kenya.
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