At least 2 people died and another 15 remain trapped under the rubble or missing after a residential building collapsed in the Brazilian city of Paulista (northeast), firefighters reported on Friday.
The Paulista Fire Department, in the metropolitan region of Recife, the capital of Pernambuco, said a 45-year-old man and a 12-year-old boy were found dead in the rubble and that 15 other people were still missing.
The collapse, the causes of which are already being investigated, occurred after 6:00 a.m. (local time) this Friday in a four-story building in the town of Janga that had received an eviction order on several occasions from the authorities. However, he kept busy despite the risk that this entailed, according to the G1 portal.
The Pernambuco government said on social media that eight teams were sent to the site after civil defense learned of the collapse at 6:35 am (09:35 GMT).
It was not clear what caused the collapse. Recife, a coastal city of around 1.5 million people, has been dealing with heavy rain in recent days. The city and its metropolitan region were placed on “attention status” on Friday, representing “moderate to high risk,” the government said.
Rescue efforts continue with the support of trained dogs and debris removal teams.
Two women had been rescued alive and sent with fractures to a municipal hospital, 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.
It was not clear what caused the collapse (REUTERS/Anderson Stevens)
The collapse occurred in the midst of heavy rains that for two weeks have put the metropolitan region of Recife on alert and that this Friday caused other landslides, floods, fallen trees and poles, and several traffic accidents.
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.
FUENTE: EFE/Reuters
