Building under construction collapses in South Africa; 50 feared trapped

[News_Editor]

TONGAAT, SOUTH AFRICA (BNO NEWS) -- A building at the site of a shopping mall under construction in South Africa collapsed on late Tuesday afternoon, killing at least one person and trapping as many as 50 others, witnesses and emergency officials said. The cause was not immediately known.

Santi Steinmann, a spokeswoman for ambulance service Netcare 911, said paramedics and other emergency services were on the scene of a building collapse at the mall in Tongaat, a town in the country's KwaZulu-Natal province. "Approximately 50 people might be trapped within the collapsed building," she said.

One witness, who came to the scene after the collapse, said he saw at least one body that appeared to have been pulled from the rubble. The witness, who asked not to be named, said emergency workers were at the scene and searching the rubble for survivors.

Other details were not immediately available.

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