Brazil News
| RIO DE JANEIRO – Rescuers have pulled the body of a fourth victim from Wednesday night's collapse of three highrise buildings in downtown Rio. According to the State Secretariat of Civil Defense, as of 5 pm Thursday, four bodies have been recovered from the rubble. Four victims are in hospitals and 19 remain unaccounted for.
Building Collapse Tragedy (Photo: G1 RJ)
The buildings collapse
Wednesday night at about 8:30 pm, three highrise buildings, one five stories, another 10 stories and a 20-story building spontaneously collapsed in the downtown area, leaving cars, trees and streets covered in dust and rubble. The number of people still missing, could, according to the mayor, change as there is no official list of who might have been in the buildings.
Early reports indicated that a loud noise, perhaps a natural gas explosion, preceded the collapse, but investigators have all but ruled that out. Speculation is now that renovations on the 20-story building may have weakened the structure which, when it fell, it took the other, smaller buildings down with it.
Adjacent structures
The buildings that collapsed were located adjacent to the Municipal Theater, a nearly 100 year old building, where American president Barack Obama spoke to Brazil's political elite last year. There are no reports of damage to the theater, although some debris did land on the roof of the beloved building. The National Library and the National Fine Arts Museum, overlooking the spacious Cinelândia Square, are located the adjacent to the theater.
The rescuers
Rescuers from the Fire Department – 60 men from the barracks of Barra da tijuca, Alto da Boa Vista, Sao Cristoval and Central – continue to search for the missing and dead using dogs, shovels and backhoes. Many of the streets in the area remain closed but the Metro, which had been closed last night, reopened this morning.
An unidentified witness described the scene as reminiscent of lower Manhattan on the morning of 9/11.
A nearby building, located on Senator Dantas Street, was evacuated this morning at the request of the Civil Defense. The nine-story building suffered some damage in the collapse.
Three people wounded in the collapse remain hospitalized on Thursday afternoon, at the Souza Aguilar Hospital, according to the Secretariat of Municipal Health. The most severe injury is to a woman who had damage to her scalp and who underwent surgery.
A thirty-one year old man was rescued from an elevator in one of the collapsed buildings. He said that he was lucky to have had his cellphone with him so that he could call for help.
This continues to be a breaking story. Check back tomorrow for updates.
Graphic Collapsed Buildings Rio de Janeiro (Photo: G1 Rio)
Read also: More Articles from Brazil Dispatch
Source(s) for this article: G1 RJ
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It's a terrible news indeed. Many people were effected by the disaster. The renovation of the building might have caused the weakening of the foundation. I hope that this kind of accident won't happen again.
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