(Johannesburg) The death toll from the collapse of a building under construction a week ago in South Africa has risen to 30 deaths, and 22 people remain missing, authorities announced on Monday.
Rescuers have extracted ten new bodies from the rubble since Sunday evening, announced the municipality of George, on the south coast.
They have worked tirelessly since this five-story building under construction suddenly collapsed last Monday while 81 people, the vast majority of them workers, were on site.
The previous report, given during the day, reported 26 dead and 26 missing.
The reason for the collapse of the building, which was to have 42 apartments and had received planning permission, has not been established.
In total, 29 people have been pulled out alive from the rubble so far, including a man, slightly injured, extracted on Saturday after 116 hours spent under the rubble, a discovery described as “miraculous” by local authorities.
The chances of survival of those who are still missing are fading even if rescuers promise to search “every cavity” in the rubble.
The city had called for a moment of silence Monday at 2:09 p.m. (8:09 a.m. Eastern), the precise time of the building’s collapse a week earlier, to “honor the lives lost and express our collective grief and our support to the affected families.”
An investigation has been opened and the police are still trying to contact the owner of the site.
The authorities also promised Monday to “accelerate the identification” of the dead to help families begin their mourning.
Some relatives of the victims expressed their frustration over the weekend at the slowness of the identification process, which involves fingerprinting and DNA tests.
The municipality has also brought in psychologists fluent in Chewa, Portuguese and Shona—languages spoken in the neighboring countries of Malawi, Mozambique and Zimbabwe—to help in its work supporting victims.
Authorities declined to comment on speculation that most of the workers there were foreigners.
South Africa, the continent’s most industrialized nation, has long attracted migrants, who often come looking for work without having the necessary papers.