Death toll from George building collapse increases to 6
Western Cape Premier Allen Winde says the death toll from the building collapse in George has increased to six.
Rescuers managed to pull one more person from the rubble, bringing the total number of people rescued to 27.
The five-storey structure had been under construction when it caved in on Monday afternoon.
Seventy-five construction workers were on-site at the time.
It's believed that 47 people are still trapped underneath the rubble.
"While this conference is going on, one more person died, and one more person has just been removed alive,” Winde said during a media briefing on Tuesday morning.
Winde said investigations are ongoing to determine the cause of the collapse.
"We are already getting an investigation going. We have to make sure that while this is happening we have special engineers on site because we need to find out why this happened and how it happened.
At the same briefing, George Municipality Mayor Leon van Wyk lauded the rescue teams.
"At district municipality, there is what we call a district job to take the process away from being on-site. So this process is ongoing, and the process that will now follow is rescue efforts that are being undertaken, so it’s quite outstanding to see the work of these teams,” he said.
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