Search and rescued halted, site handed over to police

GEORGE NEWS - In a statement issued by the Joint Operations Centre (JOC) this afternoon the search and rescue efforts at 75 Victoria Street building collapse are completed and the site, now classified as a crime scene, has officially been handed over to the South African Police Services for a formal investigation.

Once the police investigation is completed, the site will be handed over to the Department of Labour and Employment for their formal investigation.

According to the statement the multi-agency command centre can only account for those who were recovered during the search and rescue operations from the scene. This is why approximate totals were used as each minute unfolded.

“Based on information received from the contractor on site, the South African Police Service (SAPS) and other emerging external sources (witness statements), the estimated number of individuals on site during the incident amounted to approximately 81. We are aware that as the incident unfolded the numbers fluctuated, however we can now officially confirm that with the rescue and recovery efforts now completed, only 62 individuals are accounted for.”

The difference between the approximate of people on site and the official number now confirmed can be attributed to the following ABCs:

They found that some of the names on the contractor's list were duplicated.
Official investigations by SAPS confirmed that some of those on the contractor's list were not at work on the day of the incident.
CCTV clearly proved that some of those on the site left before the first responders reached the site and to date they have never reported their whereabouts.

Report history:

75 (approximate on-site) reported from 6 May 2024, 21:00 until 9 May 2024 at 06:00
81 (approximate on-site) reported from 9 May 2024, 6:30am until 16 May 2024 at 21:00
62 (confirmed on-site) reported on 17 May 2024, 09:00 at the end of the rescue and recovery operations.

The confirmed statistics for the incident are: