Paulista (Brazil) (EFE).- The death toll after the collapse on Friday of a residential building in the Brazilian city of Paulista (northeast) rose to eleven this Saturday and another three people are still trapped under the rubble or missing.
The Paulista Fire Department, in the metropolitan region of Recife, the capital of Pernambuco, confirmed that during the early hours of Saturday morning they were able to rescue more lifeless bodies from the rubble.
children among the dead
In total, the fatalities are three adult women, four men and four minors, including a five-year-old girl and an eight-year-old boy.
One of the men, an 18-year-old boy, emerged from the rubble alive but died on the way to the hospital.
The rescue work continued this Saturday with the support of trained dogs and teams to remove the rubble from the 16-apartment block that collapsed and the surrounding area, which was partially destroyed.
On Friday, three women were rescued alive, who were sent to a municipal hospital with fractures, while four other people, who are not part of the list of 19 occupants of the building and lived in an adjoining property, had minor injuries.
The collapse occurred in the midst of heavy rains that for two weeks have put the metropolitan region of Recife on alert and that on Friday caused other landslides, floods, fallen trees and poles, and several traffic accidents.
A crash that could have been avoided
The building, in the Beira-Mar popular housing residential complex, had been closed by a court order in 2010 warning of the dangers, but two years later it was occupied again – without authorization – by the owners.
In 2018, an inspection by the Fire Department suggested a new vacancy and on Thursday, a day before the tragedy, an insurer for the state bank that financed the apartments issued a similar account about the dangers of the property.
Last April, six people were crushed to death by debris after another residential building collapsed in the neighboring city of Olinda, also in the Recife metropolitan region.
The collapse occurred in the Leme building, a three-story building in the humble neighborhood of Jardim Atlântico, which also had an eviction order for its residents since 2000 due to the risk of collapse.