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CNN Live At Daybreak

London Building Collapse: Rescue Teams Search for Survivors

Aired July 20, 2001 - 11:17   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
LEON HARRIS, CNN ANCHOR: Rescue teams in London are trying to find anyone who may be trapped inside a collapsed building. The structure is a mix of businesses and apartments and apparently gave way during renovations. Rescuers are using thermal imaging now to try and locate the missing under the rubble. They say it is going to be a long, tedious process.

Let's check on that process now with CNN's Fionnuala Sweeney. She is on the phone now from London -- Fionnuala.

FIONNUALA SWEENEY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, indeed, the police at this moment are using very sensitive audio equipment. All journalists and photographers in the immediate vicinity have been asked to move away because they don't want to pick up any unnecessary sound.

They're still trying to detect any sign of life in this collapsed building. What is known is that three people were recovered from the building earlier: a man, a woman and a 14-month-old baby. They are in shock, but are in otherwise good condition.

A woman passing by when the building collapsed suffered cuts and bruises and has been taken to a hospital, where she is in stable condition. The health and safety executive here gave a statement a short time ago saying they weren't in a position to gather evidence as to how this building collapsed. But it is known that the local council recently approved renovation to the building. And part of that work involved the removal of a supporting wall.

We do know that renovation was under way at the time. But as yet, we have no knowledge as to how much of that work had been carried out. It's being described as a serious accident. The building is in very bad condition -- the police, fire brigade, emergency services moving very, very slowly and trying now, as I speak, to determine whether there is any sign of life underneath that debris.

HARRIS: Fionnuala, any idea how many people were either in those collapsed units or how many are in the building as a whole?

SWEENEY: Well, the shop that is at the front of the building -- there were two shops. And it was being made into one building. That's the work, we understand, that was taking place.

Above the shop, there were something like five flats. And there were a number of people in the flats at the time. The work now is concentrating on trying to locate any builders who may have been there at 8:30 local time this morning when this building collapsed. But at the moment, the police say that while they have been looking for up to as many as five people underneath the debris, they have still not detected any sign of life, despite the use of sniffer dogs.

Right now, they're trying to send a text message to a builder's mobile phone in the hope that if anyone is underneath that debris, that they will be able to receive it.

HARRIS: Interesting.

All right, thank you very much, Fionnuala Sweeney, updating us on that collapsed building there in London.

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