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Cambodia building collapse death toll hits 36

Thirty-six die but, twenty-three people were rescued from a collapsed building on Friday 03 Jan. before the search was called off.

Cambodia Prime Minister Hun Sen said 23 people had been pulled alive from the rubble of the seven-storey hotel, which crumpled to the ground in the seaside town of Kep on Friday afternoon.

On Sunday rescuers also managed to free a dog trapped in the debris.

The rescue effort lasted more than 40 hours, mobilizing hundreds of soldiers and labourers using excavators, drills and power saws to clear concrete and cut through metal bars of the pancaked structure.

Cambodia is undergoing a construction boom, with hotels, high-rises and casinos springing up under little regulatory oversight.

The tough and often dangerous labour is undertaken by an estimated 200,000 construction workers, mostly unskilled, reliant on day wages and not protected by union rules, according to the International Labour Organisation.

Last June some 28 people died in the collapse of a building under construction in Sihanoukville, a beach town flush with Chinese investment.

Worker Ei Kosal told APF on Saturday that he, his wife and two other women were having a meal on-site when the building collapsed.

Their two companions were crushed.

“I did not expect to survive… it’s like I have just been reborn,” Mr Kosal said from hospital.

Investigations are underway.

https://www.sbs.com.au/news/cambodia-building-collapse-death-toll-hits-36