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NEWS CENTRAL/S.
ASIA

Toll
rises in Baku building
tragedy

Azerbaijan's
president, Ilkham Aliyev visited the collapsed
building site on Wednesday
[AFP]

Rescue
workers have pulled three more bodies from
rubble after a 15-storey building collapse in
Baku, the Azerbaijani capital, raising the
death toll to 11.

Officials
said nine construction workers and two
passers-by - an elderly woman and young
girl - died in the tragedy in central
Baku.

Rescue
workers said hope of finding more survivors was
fading.

Over
the last two days, five surviving construction
workers were pulled from the rubble and treated
for injuries.

Jahangir
Gulamov, head of the rescue effort, said: "We
have have been working non-stop for three days
and will continue."

"But after so much time, the
chances of finding people alive are very
slim."

Building safety violations were
the most likely cause of the accident and four
representatives of the construction company
working on the building have been arrested,
officials said.

Ilham Aliyev, the Azerbaijani
president has ordered an
investigation.

Baku is in the midst of a
construction boom and high-rise buildings are
cropping up across the city as energy-rich
Azerbaijan enjoys record economic growth from
surging oil and gas
exports.

Source:
Agencies

Related:

China
orders bridge collapse probe

(15 Aug 2007)

Many
dead in China bridge collapse

(14 Aug 2007)

Deaths
as US bridge collapses
(02
Aug 2007)

Mumbai
building collapse kills many

(19 Jul 2007)

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