Rio highrise collapse

[dik]

From the BBC, "Part of a building nearly 20 storeys high has collapsed in the centre of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, leaving rubble strewn across a wide area."

 

[JStephen]

I saw the Yahoo link, and they described a 5 story building, and didn't have much information on it.

 

[JAE]

Here's a link with photos

Rio collapse link

 

[dik]

...and from the BBC, "At least 19 people are believed to be missing after two high-rise buildings collapsed in Rio de Janeiro late on Wednesday.

Rescue workers are searching through the rubble for survivors. Five people are said to have been lightly injured."

Not a good day for buildings...

 

[dik]

I'm starting to lose count... from the Guardian, "At least two killed as three buildings collapse in Rio de Janeiro

Witnesses heard loud bang before the three buildings in central Rio collapsed almost simultaneously"

Dik

 

[hokie66]

JAE's link says there were illegal and unsupervised structural modifications underway in the tallest building.

 

[JStephen]

http://www.washingtonpost.com/world...-fade-9-dead/2012/01/27/gIQAmsHrVQ_story.html

"Officials believe unauthorized construction work inside a 20-story, 72-year-old building damaged its structure and caused it to crumble, wrenching down two neighboring office buildings of approximately the same age...Fonseca told news media gathered at the site that workers had removed several walls on the ninth floor, but said that didn’t affect the building’s infrastructure. He didn’t know if there was an engineer in charge of the project..." (Fonseca was a worker that survived)