Three people were killed and around 100 were injured on Saturday after the seven-story headquarters of the Angolan police's criminal investigation department collapsed in Luanda, rescue workers said.
The three bodies were pulled from the rubble after hours of searching by teams of rescuers who were still struggling as night fell to access the worst-affected part of the building in which women detainees were trapped.
"We have recovered three bodies from the rubble and rescued 101 people," said Eugenio Laborinho, national commander of the protection services.
PHOTO: AFP
He said that those rescued from the rubble had been delivered to hospitals.
The wounded were mostly sent to the capital's main Sao Paolo hospital and to a military hospital where the authorities were not giving out details on the extent of their injuries.
The collapse happened at around daybreak when only a skeleton staff of 14 guards was on duty and all those who were injured were believed to be detainees who were being held while their cases are under investigation.
Laborinho said it was unclear how many were trapped.
"It will take us more than 48 or 72 hours until we reach everyone. This is what the engineers estimate," he said.
Cranes had been employed to shift some of the masonry while residents living nearby were told to evacuate their homes in case there was a further collapse.
Sniffer dogs have also been sent in to locate more survivors.
Local radio reported that the rescuers had struggled to reach the women's holding cell and were now looking to access by drilling through a neighboring building after it had been evacuated.
Police Commissioner Ambrosio de Lemos said that some of the survivors who had been located had been given emergency supplies before the rescuers began the task of trying to extricate them.
"We gave the victims supplies and cellphones to keep in touch. We know there's a woman with a baby," the commissioner said.
A reporter at the scene said that the cries of both male and female victims could be heard from within the rubble.
One of the victims who was rescued by the emergency services said he had heard a loud "cracking" noise from inside his cell during the night, shortly before the building collapsed.
"We heard something cracking. I looked out through the window and saw this pillar completely broken and then I saw one of the guards running away. We called for him to save us but he didn't come," Joao Salgueiro told state radio RNA. "Some time later we saw the building collapsing upon us."
POLITICAL PRISONERS VS DEPORTEES: Venezuela’s prosecutor’s office slammed the call by El Salvador’s leader, accusing him of crimes against humanity Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele on Sunday proposed carrying out a prisoner swap with Venezuela, suggesting he would exchange Venezuelan deportees from the US his government has kept imprisoned for what he called “political prisoners” in Venezuela. In a post on X, directed at Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, Bukele listed off a number of family members of high-level opposition figures in Venezuela, journalists and activists detained during the South American government’s electoral crackdown last year. “The only reason they are imprisoned is for having opposed you and your electoral fraud,” he wrote to Maduro. “However, I want to propose a humanitarian agreement that
ECONOMIC WORRIES: The ruling PAP faces voters amid concerns that the city-state faces the possibility of a recession and job losses amid Washington’s tariffs Singapore yesterday finalized contestants for its general election on Saturday next week, with the ruling People’s Action Party (PAP) fielding 32 new candidates in the biggest refresh of the party that has ruled the city-state since independence in 1965. The move follows a pledge by Singaporean Prime Minister Lawrence Wong (黃循財), who took office last year and assumed the PAP leadership, to “bring in new blood, new ideas and new energy” to steer the country of 6 million people. His latest shake-up beats that of predecessors Lee Hsien Loong (李顯龍) and Goh Chok Tong (吳作棟), who replaced 24 and 11 politicians respectively
Young women standing idly around a park in Tokyo’s west suggest that a giant statue of Godzilla is not the only attraction for a record number of foreign tourists. Their faces lit by the cold glow of their phones, the women lining Okubo Park are evidence that sex tourism has developed as a dark flipside to the bustling Kabukicho nightlife district. Increasing numbers of foreign men are flocking to the area after seeing videos on social media. One of the women said that the area near Kabukicho, where Godzilla rumbles and belches smoke atop a cinema, has become a “real
‘WATER WARFARE’: A Pakistani official called India’s suspension of a 65-year-old treaty on the sharing of waters from the Indus River ‘a cowardly, illegal move’ Pakistan yesterday canceled visas for Indian nationals, closed its airspace for all Indian-owned or operated airlines, and suspended all trade with India, including to and from any third country. The retaliatory measures follow India’s decision to suspend visas for Pakistani nationals in the aftermath of a deadly attack by shooters in Kashmir that killed 26 people, mostly tourists. The rare attack on civilians shocked and outraged India and prompted calls for action against their country’s archenemy, Pakistan. New Delhi did not publicly produce evidence connecting the attack to its neighbor, but said it had “cross-border” links to Pakistan. Pakistan denied any connection to