Business
Ghana: Rescuers end search for survivors at collapsed mall
(Reuters) – Rescuers have ended their search for survivors of a shopping mall collapse in Ghana’s capital Accra last week which killed at least 14 people, officials said on Monday.
The four-story building, operated by retailer Melcom Ltd in Accra’s Achimota neighborhood, collapsed on Wednesday due to a suspected structural failure as employees gathered before opening for business.
Kofi Portuphy, head of the National Disaster Management Organization, said emergency personnel, who used excavators, heavy duty cranes and shovels to remove debris, reached the structure’s ground floor late on Sunday.
“I can say that we have concluded our rescue and recovery efforts based on our conviction that there will be no more persons, dead or alive, in the wreckage,” Portuphy told reporters.
Melcom initially believed that around 50 people had been inside the building when it collapsed, but it soon became clear that dozens more were trapped under the rubble.
Rescuers pulled 71 survivors from beneath the twisted metal and broken concrete, though four later died in hospital bringing the total confirmed dead to 14. Dozens of others were injured.
Melcom said on Monday that one of its employees at the branch remained unaccounted for.
