Three workers were critically injured when a building under construction collapsed in a residential area of Majengo Ward, Mombasa, on Monday afternoon, officials said.
In what could be described by some as a miracle, the Kenya Red Cross reported Monday night that it had completed its search of the rubble and found no victims in the building collapse that had left one of the three people who were working on the site still trapped beneath its debris by evening.
“The search and rescue operation in Majengo, Mombasa County, has closed after one more person was rescued,” officials from the Kenya Red Cross said in an update on X.
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Rescue crews had been searching the wreckage for the third worker, who was last seen about 1 PM when the building came crashing down during ongoing construction work.
“Two people have been rescued, while one person is feared trapped,” the Kenya Red Cross initially reported. “A multi-agency response team, including the Kenya Police, Mombasa County Government, and the Kenya Red Cross, is conducting search and rescue operations.”
Other construction workers who had escaped the collapse unharmed, along with nearby residents, joined in the rescue efforts. They gathered in the heat around the collapsed building, which had been reduced to a damp pile of plaster, scattered blocks, and jutting wooden beams.
The search was called off after the third construction worker was found alive but injured, having been struck and trapped under debris.
The Mombasa County Lands and Housing Department and NCA (National Construction Authority) are yet to comment on this latest incident, which occurred more than a year after a four-story building near Mackinnon Market in Mombasa County collapsed on Saturday, May 27, 2023, just one day after it was declared unsafe for occupancy.
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