The chief of the Search and Rescue Agency for Balikpapan, Hendra, said the team discovered another worker, who was identified as Jarwo, under the debris on Wednesday at 04:30 a.m. local time.
"We found another casualty on Wednesday morning at 04:30 a.m.," Hendra said here on Wednesday.
He said seven construction workers have not been found under the building debris.
"According to the Samarinda Manpower sub-official data, the total number of construction workers who were the victims of the collapsed building was 77. Seven workers remained buried in the ruins," Hendra said.
The rescue team is searching for the possible victims who are still alive. "We sincerely hope that there are victims under the debris, who are alive. Thus, we are searching for them by a manual process, and not by using heavy machinery," the chief added.
The officers had detected two buried workers on Wednesday afternoon. "We have detected the location of two workers buried in the debris. However, we have not evacuated them as the bodies are wedged between the ruins. We are trying to take out the bodies manually, without heavy machinery," Hendra noted.
A three-storey building with at least 17 shops in the Cendrawasih Permai Complex of Samarinda, East Kalimantan province, collapsed and buried the workers on Tuesday at 6:25 a.m. local time.
The total number of construction workers in the site was 84. The preliminary data showed that 64 people were safe and five suffered injuries. (*)
Editor: Heru Purwanto
Copyright © ANTARA 2014
