Two bodies were found on Tuesday afternoon, October 7, in the rubble of the building in the center of Madrid that had collapsed at noon, the mayor of the Spanish capital announced, specifying that two people were still missing.
“The body of one of the four missing people was located and removed from the building, another missing person (lifeless) was also located inside the building and we are currently working to reach the body (…) there are still two people who could not be located,” José Luis Martínez-Almeida explained to the press shortly before 10:30 p.m., almost ten hours after the building collapsed. The mayor indicated that the first body recovered among the ruins of the building was that of a man.
Firefighters clear debris “by hand”
“As for the second, we still do not know for sure if it is a man or a woman who also disappeared, all this remains very uncertain,” he told the press while, according to the Spanish media, the four missing are an architect and three construction workers.
“What we know is that there is a body that has already been located inside the building and that firefighters are removing it,” he continued, adding that they had received reinforcement from dogs and drones.
The firefighters had to clear the debris “by hand”, but they were also able to rely on a crane that was already originally used on site for the work carried out on this building destined to become a 4-star hotel.
“A collapse at all levels”
Asked about the reasons for this collapse, the councilor said he could not answer: “The judicial police in charge of the investigation must understand exactly what the causes of this collapse are. The truth is that the collapse of the sixth floor slab occurred and this caused a collapse of all the floors “up to the ground floor”, where one of the missing people was located who has not yet been located,” he explained.
The accident took place on a street in the center of Madrid, near the very touristy Plaza Mayor, shortly before 1:30 p.m. and left several people injured, in addition to these two deaths and two disappearances.
Source: BFM TV
