Last four rescued from collapsed Khartoum hospital

KHARTOUM, Feb 23 (Reuters) – Four people were pulled alive from the rubble of a hospital building site in the Sudanese capital Khartoum on Wednesday, a rescue worker said.

The four people — a police colonel, an Egyptian tiler and two Sudanese workers — had spent the night buried in the remains of the four-storey hospital annex, which collapsed at about 10 p.m. (1900 GMT) on Tuesday.

“They were carried out. They seemed to be stable but they were taken into intensive care. I think they were in a state of shock,” said the rescue worker, who asked not to be named.

The four men are thought to have been the only people trapped overnight. Nine other people were in the building when it fell but were quickly rescued.

The annex to the Ribat police hospital, seven km (four miles) east of the city centre, was almost complete but patients and medical staff had not yet moved in.