Townspeople surge on collapsed hospital in Kenya, rescuing 40

More than 50 construction workers were trapped in timber and concrete rubble when a building, reported variously as three and four storeys in height, and said to be a hospital, collapsed yesterday in Kenya.

There are no reported fatalities but 40 workers were reported injured in the incident in Kapsabet town, Nandi county around 310km northwest of Nairobi.

Hundreds of townspeople surged on the site to save workers with hoes and shovels in heavy rains, while an excavator got to work “scooping collapsed concrete and stones”, Daily Nation reported.

Witnesses at the scene said the entire building sank before it collapsed and that rains had been “pounding the area”.

The Standard reported that the building, located in the town centre next to a Total petrol station, was a “private hospital under construction”.

One witness said construction had been proceeding in a hurry after work had been abandoned since last year: “The building was being constructed in a hurry as workers were here day and night. We suspect something was not right in the construction,” the witness said.

The County Government of Nandi said a witness had reported that more than 50 workers were in the building when it came down.