Police Confirm 7 Dead In Building Collapse In Kenyan Capital

Kenyan National Youth Servicemen work at the site of a building collapse in Nairobi, Kenya, Saturday, April 30, 2016. A six-story residential building in a low income area of the Kenyan capital collapsed Friday under heavy rain and flooding, trapping an unknown number of people in the rubble, Kenyan officials said.(AP Photo/Sayyid Abdul Azim)

Seven people were killed and at least 121 others were injured in the collapse of a residential building in Nairobi during heavy rains, Kenyan officials said Saturday.

Associated Press report continues:

The Kenya Red Cross said a search team managed to pull three children and an adult from the rubble of the six-story building in the Huruma area.

The Red Cross said 150 building units and adjacent homes were affected. Rescuers said they could hear voices of five people trapped in the building and it will be difficult to remove the concrete slabs using heavy machinery without endangering those trapped inside, said nominated legislator Johnson Sakaja.

Live TV footage showed the National Youth Service and firefighters removing stones by hand and a crowd cheering as a child was removed from the rubble. President Uhuru Kenyatta visited the scene.

Hours-long traffic jams caused by flooded roads delayed rescue teams trying to reach the scene, said Japheth Koome, Nairobi's police chief, who confirmed the death toll. Kenya is in the midst of its April-May rainy season.

Jacob Kiruma, who said he lived in the house adjacent to the one that collapsed, said the building was constructed "shoddily." The structure had been built in less than five months and the 126 single rooms were quickly occupied at a rent of $35 a month, Kiruma said.

Area legislator Stephen Kariuki said this was the second building to collapse in a year. He blamed the county government of failing to follow through with demolitions of buildings that were identified as unfit for humans.

Taking advantage of a high demand for housing in Nairobi, some property developers bypass building regulations to cut costs and maximize profits.

President Uhuru Kenyatta last year ordered an audit of all the buildings in the country to see if they are up to code after eight buildings collapsed, killing at least 15 people. The report from the audit by the National Construction Authority found that 58 percent of buildings in the capital were unfit to live in. The majority of Nairobi's 4 million people live in low-income areas or slums.

The heavy rains have caused other fatalities. Four people died when a wall collapsed Friday in the affluent Hurlingham area and two people drowned when they were swept away by flood waters in the capital's industrial area, said Nairobi police chief Koome.