Death toll in Rio building collapse rises to 17

Jan 28, 2012, 17:38 GMT

Rio de Janeiro - Three more bodies were retrieved Saturday from the rubble of three buildings that collapsed in central Rio de Janeiro, bringing the death toll to 17, the Fire Department said.

At least nine people were believed to be missing after the collapse Wednesday. A rescue team of about 100 continued the search Saturday, although the authorities have made it clear that they do not expect to find survivors.

One of the recovered bodies had initially been removed from the site along with a pile of rubble and taken to a rubbish dump, where it was found by municipal cleaners. Search coordinator Sergio Simoes said the mistake happened because the body was badly crushed, which made it go unnoticed.

Six people were injured in the accident, although only one of them remains in hospital, in serious condition, the Rio Health Department said.

Three adjacent office buildings - 20, 10 and four storeys high - collapsed in Rio's historic centre. At the time, most of the occupants had left work and the buildings were nearly empty, which prevented a larger death toll.

Police had interrogated 11 people by Saturday and were expected to question several others to determine the cause of the collapse.

Investigators were reportedly focusing on possible structural defects in one of the buildings, most likely the tallest, because of illegal work by the occupants to alter at least two floors.

'We are collecting information from the experts who were at the site, and everything will be verified. Nobody can say yet whether it was caused by structural damage. There are several hypotheses that will be assessed and analyzed,' Rio de Janeiro Mayor Eduardo Paes said Friday.

The accident has renewed concerns about safety in Rio de Janeiro, which is to host the final of the 2014 football World Cup and the Olympic Games in 2016.