<div style="text-align: justify; "><span style="font-size: 1rem;"><b>Rescue teams worked through the night searching for dozens of construction workers buried for more than 12 hours under the rubble of concrete after a multi-story apartment complex that was being built collapsed in a coastal city in South Africa.</b></span><br></div><div style="text-align: justify; "><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Authorities said early Tuesday that the death toll had risen to five, while 49 workers remained unaccounted-for in the mangled wreckage of the building, which collapsed on Monday afternoon. Authorities said a further 21 workers had been rescued from the rubble and taken to various hospitals, with at least 11 of them suffering severe injuries.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The collapse happened in the city of George, about 400 kilometers (250 miles) east of Cape Town on South Africa's south coast.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">More than 100 emergency personnel and other responders were on the scene, using sniffer dogs to try to locate the workers, some of whom were feared buried under huge slabs of concrete that fell on them when the five-story building came down.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Large cranes and other heavy lifting equipment were brought to the site to help with the rescue effort and tall spotlights were erected to allow search and rescue personnel to work through the night.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">There were 75 workers on the construction site when the building collapsed, the George municipality said. It said three teams of rescuers were working at separate sites around the collapsed building where they believed construction workers were likely to be, reports AP</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Family and friends of the workers gathered at the nearby municipal offices.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">“Our thoughts are with the families and all those affected who continue to wait on word of their loved ones,” George Executive Mayor Leon Van Wyk said.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Authorities were investigating what caused the tragedy and a case was opened by police, but there was no immediate information on why the building suddenly collapsed. CCTV footage from a nearby home showed the concrete structure and metal scaffolding around it come crashing down at 2.09 p.m. on Monday afternoon, causing a plume of dust to rise over the neighborhood.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify; ">bnbd/fas</div>