Condemned building used by homeless people falls in Brazil, killing 14 people

A derelict apartment block frequented by homeless people in Brazil’s northeastern state of Pernambuco fell, killing 14 people, including six children, firemen said Saturday.

The building in Recife’s Paulista neighbourhood collapsed early Friday, spurring a desperate hunt for casualties.

Searchers used sniffer dogs to dig through the wreckage and found two 15-year-old girls and a 65-year-old lady alive, according to firemen. An 18-year-old male was also retrieved alive but died as a result of his injuries.

“Search operations are now focused on the removal of animals,” the fire department said Saturday.

The structure was occupied by homeless persons, despite the fact that staying there has been prohibited since 2010, according to a statement issued by the Paulista municipal hall.

According to the newspaper Folha de Sao Paulo, city officials referred to the construction as a “coffin block,” a designation given to large-scale buildings erected in the 1970s in the Recife metropolitan region.

According to a city hall statement, the issue of persons exploiting legally locked buildings in Paulista is “chronic.” According to the report, authorities discussed the problem during President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva’s recent visit to the northeastern state.

The collapse in Paulista was the second such tragedy in less than three months in Pernambuco. A building disintegrated in April in neighboring Olinda, causing at least five deaths.

Heavy rains had soaked the Recife region before the building collapsed in Paulista, prompting Pernambuco’s water and climate agency to post an alert for the metropolitan area.

A Presbyterian church near the site of the fallen building was offering housing assistance to families who had been living there, city officials said. The church was also collecting donations of food, clothes, mattresses, water and hygiene products, officials added.