2 men survive collapse of Cambodian building
Print Edition
Two men were pulled alive from the rubble of a collapsed Cambodian building yesterday, more than two days after a construction site accident that left at least 28 dead.
Hopes that more survivors would be found under the debris had all but faded, but against the odds two people were cut free from the tangled wreckage and carried out alive.
“I heard the sound of rescuers. I called for help but they didn’t hear me,” Ros Sitha, one of the two found alive yesterday, said.
“There was a dead body near me. I didn’t have water to drink,” the 41-year-old man said from his hospital bed.
“I am so lucky to survive.”
Sitha’s wife earlier said she had “no hope” her husband and nephew would be found alive. The two men said they are both bruised and weak but have no serious injuries.
Between 40 and 50 construction workers were asleep in the building when this seven-story building collapsed on Saturday, according to the authority.
Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen visited the scene of the collapse before daybreak yesterday.
He watched the rescue of the two survivors, climbing into their ambulances to see them before they were taken to hospital.
The prime minister has ordered inspections of all building sites in the beach town.
The governor of Preah Sihanouk province Yun Min, meanwhile, resigned yesterday.
Yun Min accepted he had made a managerial “mistake,” according to a post on Hun Sen’s Facebook page, adding that Kampong Cham provincial governor Kuoch Chamroeun will replace.
Residents near the disaster scene said they had long feared tragedy was imminent.
“These buildings are coming up in just a year,” said Sock Dara, 45.
Authorities on Monday put the death toll at 25 shortly before a reporter witnessed rescuers pulling out three more bodies from the debris, bringing the total to 28.
The Chinese Embassy to Cambodia issued a condolence statement on Sunday, expressing its deepest sympathy to the victims in the accident.
The embassy immediately reached out to Chinese enterprises and chambers of commerce in Cambodia, mobilizing human resources, materials as well as equipment including large excavators to help with the rescue, the statement said.
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