One person was killed, another was injured, and about a dozen others may have been trapped under the rubble of a 10-story building, under construction, that collapsed overnight from Monday to Tuesday in Villa Gesell, a seaside resort south of Buenos Aires, according to authorities. .
Nearly 300 rescuers, aided by drones and dogs, were still busy clearing rubble as of midday. Javier Alonso, the security minister of Buenos Aires province, where Villa Gesell is located, told the press that they found the body of an 89-year-old man, in addition to an injured woman who was taken to hospital.
According to the municipality of Villa Gesell, the building, usually a residential hotel, collapsed at around one in the morning. It is possible that “between 7 and 9 people”, especially workers who carry out secret work “without a license from the municipality”, will find themselves trapped under the rubble. The work first stopped in August.
But for Minister Alonso, the number of missing people is uncertain “because the building did not serve as a hotel.” We have testimonies from neighbors (…) We believe there may have been between 9 and 11 other people (in addition to the two people who were recovered) in the building.”
The construction site manager and two construction workers were placed in police custody as part of the investigation that began, according to what the La Nacion daily newspaper quoted judicial sources as saying.
Villa Gesell is a seaside resort with a population of about 40,000, 350 kilometers south of Buenos Aires, on the Atlantic coast, that survives mainly thanks to tourism, and thrives with tens of thousands of vacationers every summer, especially a young clientele and revelers.
