OMM Newsroom
Rescue workers recovered a woman’s body on Friday from the rubble of a collapsed 16-storey building in Nairobi, as emergency teams continued searching for 16 people still missing eight days after the disaster, Anadolu Agency reported.
Nairobi North County Commissioner Simon Osumba said the woman had been crushed beneath a concrete wall. He told reporters at the scene that her body had been split in two and said her remains were taken to Nairobi City Mortuary.
The building was still under construction when it collapsed on Oct. 23 in the densely populated Eastleigh neighbourhood, trapping people beneath concrete and steel.
Businesses had already begun operating in ground-floor shops, exposing workers and customers to the collapse during a busy Friday.
Authorities said rescue teams had cleared about 85% of the debris. Six people had been pulled out alive over the previous five days.
Osumba said a joint verification exercise by the Kenya Red Cross and the Directorate of Criminal Investigations had confirmed the number of people still unaccounted for.
National Disaster Management Unit Director Duncan Ochieng said emergency personnel were concentrating on parts of the wreckage where possible signs of life had been detected. Rescuers continued working through unstable concrete slabs and twisted metal to reach people believed to be trapped.
The disaster has renewed concerns about construction safety and enforcement of building regulations in Nairobi, where rapid urban development has increased pressure on oversight authorities.
