There are more people still stuck under the collapsed building in George, Western Cape, than previously presumed. This was revealed by the Garden Route District Joint Operational Centre which established that the Victoria Street building collapse had 81 workers on site and not 75 as previously reported.

The tragic incident happened on Monday left eight people dead as of this morning. According to a report issued by the George Local Municipality, the tally of retrieved construction workers who were stuck under the building rubble is 37. The report stated that 16 of the workers were critical injured, six are fighting for their lives while seven sustained minor injuries.

The rescue operation, which started on Monday afternoon soon after the building collapsed, has been ongoing for 64 hours. Rescue operations are still ongoing with 44 people still stuck under the rubble. Western Cape Head of Disaster ,Colin Deiner, said they have decided to change the strategy as they have received other machines to help assist remove the rubble. "As you know we were able to retrieve most of the bodies because of the dogs. We have now reached a part where we need to remove the rubble because there are still people who are stuck underneath the five double storey building. As much as we are not sure about time and date, we are confident that this operation may last up to two days from now on," he said. Colin said that the rescue efforts continued overnight. "The emergency response team is implementing more substantive concrete breakers and additional trucks to remove building rubble from the site," he said.