adminJOHANNESBURG. – South African emergency workers called off a search for survivors under a collapsed half-built mall near Durban yesterday as police opened a culpable homicide investigation. For 19 hours rescue workers had scoured the maze of tangled concrete and rubble in the hope of finding survivors of an incident that killed one and injured 29.
It is not known how many bodies may still be trapped because of the roof collapse, which occurred on Tuesday in Tongaat, just north of Durban.
Fibre optic cameras and other specialist equipment failed to uncover anything overnight, dashing hopes.
“Unfortunately, we haven’t come up with anything positive through the night and today the search adjourned,” said police lieutenant Mandy Govender.
Efforts to establish the death toll have been complicated by the timing of the collapse, just as construction workers were finishing up for the day, and by the suspected use of subcontractors and migrant labourers.
“We haven’t the faintest idea of how many people are dead,” said Govender, adding that all people on the official workers’ roll of 25 had been accounted for.
According to The Mercury newspaper Singh was previously convicted of bribing a city official to overlook substandard building. – AFP.
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