Rescuers yesterday dug out victims buried alive a day after a building collapsed in central Nairobi, killing at least 12 and injuring more than 100.

 

Rescue workers pulled out one of three people who Kenyan police said were still trapped, and officials fear that many more may still be found dead. A rescue worker who fell into the wreckage overnight was also pulled out.

 

The rescuers, including foreign experts from the US and Israel, drilled holes to provide oxygen but were forced to move carefully to prevent a further collapse after the newly constructed six-story building fell on Monday.

 

"We had seen eight people and we have removed four, so now there are 12 dead," Kenya police spokesperson Jaspher Ombati said, adding that 102 people had been injured.

 

Earlier he had listed the death toll at 14, and he gave no explanation when asked why it had fallen. At least three bodies could be seen and the smell of the dead began to emanate from the wreckage, a reporter said.

 

Kenyan President Mwai Kibaki cut short his trip to an African Union summit in Sudan to fly home yesterday and take charge of the rescue operation.

 

An elite Israeli military search and rescue team jetted in yesterday and took control of the scene, as they did after the deadly 1998 bombing of the US Embassy in Nairobi and of an Israeli-owned hotel near the coastal resort of Mombasa in 2002.

 

"Definitely we will find dead people on the site," Major Avi Berman of the Israeli rescue team told reporters.

 

US Navy "Seabee" engineers had also flown in yesterday from Djibouti, and 10 civilian experts from the UK were also due to arrive.

 

Shoddy construction was suspected of causing the collapse in a bustling commercial area near the central business district. In a city where graft runs rampant, many buildings are thrown up without the proper licensing or inspections.

 

Construction workers are often poorly paid untrained laborers known as watu wa mukono, which literally means "people of the hands" in Swahili.

 

Asked how many unlicensed buildings were in east Africa's largest city, Nairobi City Planning Committee Chairman David Kaberere told a news conference: "I think there should be many. Fortunately they are not falling down."

 

(China Daily January 25, 2006)