Death toll in Goa building collapse climbs to 27

wo more bodies were pulled out today from the debris of the Canacona building collapse here, taking the death toll in the accident to 27.

Bodies of two men were extricated from the rubble this morning as rescue operations entered the seventh day, Director of Fire and Emergency Services Ashok Menon told PTI.

The five-storey building at Canacona town, 70 km from here, had caved in last Saturday.

The rescuers had began clearing the debris little after the tragedy but met with a roadblock on Monday when they had to withdraw operations due to threat to adjacent buildings following which manual rescue work began on Tuesday. Sixteen people were thereafter pulled alive out of the wreckage.

The search and clean-up operations at the disaster site at Chaudi, Canacona entered the seventh day on Friday, even as the demolition machine continued its operations for the second day, though no more bodies were recovered.

Speaking to TOI, South Goa collector Venancio Furtado said that a part of the row house that was hampering the movement of the demolition machine was razed in the evening. "This was done to facilitate access to the machine to the portion of the debris of the collapsed building where more bodies may be lying. There is a stench emanating from that portion and it is expected that some bodies could be traced there. There was no other way for the machine to gain access to that spot and the structure was already declared unsafe," Furtado said.

The decision to bring down the part of the row house was taken after chief minister Manohar Parrikar visited the site in the evening and took stock of the situation. Parrikar said that it may take another 3-4 days for the debris to be cleared. There could be six more bodies still underneath the rubble, he added.

The chief minister had earlier said that while the structure located towards the lower end of the debris (referring to the row house) will be demolished, a decision with regards to the other structures was yet to be taken.

Saturday 11 January 2014

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/goa/part-of-row-house-demolished-to-ease-search-operations/articleshow/28653006.cms

http://www.thehindubusinessline.com/news/death-toll-in-goa-building-collapse-climbs-to-27/article5565857.ece