George building collapse death toll increases to 7

Rescuers have managed to pull out more people from the rubble, bringing the total number to 36 of people rescued.

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 39 people are still trapped underneath the rubble. 

"Rescue operations at the building collapse site on Victoria Street continue with a multi- disciplinary rescue team of more than 200 emergency services," reads a short statement released by the George Municipality on Wednesday morning.

Speaking to the SABC, Western Cape MEC Anton Bredell says there is a race against time.

"It's a race against time and you can feel the tension on site, because we know that at this stage we will need to lift these concrete slabs, and we are getting closer to that state. But for now, we are going to walk the site and see that if there is any life and then we are going to focus on getting those people out."

Meanwhile, the Western Cape Disaster Management Head, Colin Deiner says the international standard of rescue mode is three days, and everyone trapped in any disaster is treated as being alive for those three days.

This as the operation has now reached the more than halfway mark of three days. 

Deiner added rescue teams have started removing large pieces of rubble.

"The reason we do that is that, there is a possibility that people can still be alive that we haven't seen, that are trapped more deeper. We will continue to do that and then we will make a call after three days on where we stand. We are going to give absolute maximum time to see how many people we can get."

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