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Death toll of the George building collapse rises to 14
The death toll of the George building collapse has risen to 14 after two more bodies were recovered on Friday afternoon.Local government MEC Anton Bredell said the two bodies were recovered just over an hour ago.
“Unfortunately, we are still looking for 39 more people. Fourteen people are deceased, and our thoughts and prayers are with the families.
“It’s very difficult…. we understand. We also got the embassies [and] the consulates involved, especially to help with translation to help [and] look after the families,” Bredell said.
“We have been aware of them [the two bodies], but it takes time to get people out.”
George building collapse ‘a national calamity’, says Phaahla as death toll rises to 12
The massive search and rescue operation at the collapsed building construction site in George has reached 95 hours, and authorities are racing against time.
On Friday, the Western Cape provincial government confirmed the death toll had risen to 12 after three more bodies were retrieved from under the rubble in the morning.
“There are 41 unaccounted for, 40 people have been rescued, and unfortunately 12 are deceased,” said MEC for local government Anton Bredell.
The disaster manager for the Garden Route District Municipality, Gerhard Otto, said the operation was still in rescue mode.
“We have not moved from rescue to recovery, and we did not move from rescue to recovery yesterday either. I said we would stay in rescue mode.”