YAOUNDE (Reuters) – The death toll from a weekend building collapse in Cameroon’s commercial hub Douala has risen to 34 from an earlier estimate of 12, the housing and urban development minister said on Monday.
The four-storey building collapsed on Sunday, destroying a nearby building and injuring scores of residents.
“The building in question unfortunately had no building permit,” Minister Celestine Ketcha Courtes said, adding that an investigation had been launched.
She said rescue efforts were ongoing on Monday to make sure no one was still trapped in the rubble, despite difficult access conditions.
It remained unclear how many occupants were in the building at the time it collapsed. Residents said the building had shown signs of dilapidation with exposed and rusted steel reinforcement rods.
(Reporting by Amindeh Blaise Atabong; Editing by Bate Felix and David Holmes)
