Rescuers at the collapsed building on Eastleigh’s 9th Street brought two more people out alive on Thursday, as the search operation entered its seventh day.<\/p>
Teams on site said they had now cleared more than 80 per cent of the debris and were pushing towards the basement, where they believe more people may still be trapped. National Disaster Management Unit Director Duncan Ochieng said crews hoped to reach the bottom of the structure by Thursday evening, overnight, or by Friday morning at the latest.<\/p>
About 16 people remain unaccounted for, and families have continued to keep vigil near the cordoned-off site waiting for word on their relatives.<\/p>
The latest rescues follow the detection of two people believed to be alive under the debris on Tuesday evening. That breakthrough came from a team of Chinese specialists brought in by the government, who are using acoustic sensors that pick up faint sounds, thermal cameras that can be pushed into gaps in the rubble, and radar that detects the small movements of breathing. Six people had already been recovered alive earlier in the week.<\/p>
The multi-storey building, which was still under construction, came down at about 1pm on Friday, October 23. Interior Cabinet Secretary Kipchumba Murkomen said 67 construction workers were on site at the time, and authorities say many of those trapped had been running businesses on the lower floors even though the building was incomplete.<\/p>
The number of people reported missing has fallen steadily as police and the Kenya Red Cross traced relatives using phone records; 52 people were initially reported missing.<\/p>
Sources: People Daily; Kenyans.co.ke; The Star; Pulse Kenya.<\/em><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Rescuers have cleared more than 80 per cent of the debris on 9th Street and are pushing towards the basement, with about 16 people still unaccounted for.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":290,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-277","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-eastleigh"],"yoast_head":"\n