Hopes wane for survivors in Philippine garbage site collapse
Hopes wane for survivors in Philippine garbage site collapse
Hopes of finding survivors days after the collapse of a massive mountain of trash in the central Philippines are fading.
About 50 sanitation workers were buried on Thursday (Jan 8) when the mountain of garbage toppled onto them from an estimated height of 20 storeys at the Binaliw Landfill in Cebu City.
So far, 12 employees have been pulled alive from the garbage and hospitalised.
The recovery of a body on Sunday brought the confirmed death toll to seven. At least 29 people are still missing.
Specialised radar detected faint heartbeats under 30 metres of debris. But by Sunday (Jan 11), hopes dimmed, and no further signs of life were found beneath the trash.
“We feel like we're going crazy just waiting,” said a sister of one of the missing - a landfill worker three months pregnant, whose fate remains unknown.
A local fire officer said it was unlikely "for people to still be alive” three days after "tons of debris and trash had collapsed over them".
