3 dead, 17 mostly workers still missing in collapse of unfinished hotel in Philippines

3 dead, 17 mostly workers still missing in collapse of unfinished hotel in Philippines

ANGELES(PHILIPPINES): (May 25) Rescuers pulled out two workers early Monday from an immense pile of rubble that was a nine-story hotel which collapsed while under construction in a northern Philippine city, bringing the death toll to three with 17 others still missing, officials said.

One of the workers emerged dead while emergency personnel struggled in the early morning hours to revive the other one in an ambulance near the pile of concrete slabs, twisted iron bars and aluminum scaffoldings that was all that remained of the building in Angeles City of Pampanga Province. They eventually gave up and drove away.

The poignant scene was witnessed by a small group of journalists, including from The Associated Press, who stood by as hundreds of rescuers led by firefighters and police scrambled for hours to extricate the two workers, who were at the time alive but trapped under concrete slabs and iron bars.