Rescue volunteers detect signs of life beneath Nairobi's collapsed building

A Chinese volunteer rescue team has detected suspected signs of life beneath the rubble of a collapsed building in Kenya's capital, Nairobi, as emergency rescuers work around the clock to try to save lives.

Guo Hongli, a search specialist with Blue Sky Rescue, a Chinese nongovernmental emergency rescue organization, said two members of the Chinese rescue team arrived in Nairobi on Monday afternoon.

The team members, who traveled from Beijing and Shenzhen, brought specialized equipment, including a high-precision radar life detector, a Delsar LD3 acoustic life detector, and a snake eye life detector.

Using specialized life-detection equipment, the rescuers have been scanning the area around the collapsed building since Monday night. They detected suspected signs of life and reconfirmed the signals on Wednesday morning, Guo said.

"We heard there was a supermarket beneath the rubble, so the survivors might have had access to food and water. We will continue working closely with Kenyan rescue teams while continuing to monitor the signals for signs of life," Guo said.

The search continued amid uncertainty over the number of people still unaccounted for.

As of Wednesday morning, the Kenya Red Cross said 16 people remained unaccounted for following reports from families unable to contact their relatives since the collapse.

The multistory building collapsed on Friday in Eastleigh, a densely populated commercial and residential area of Nairobi.

Specialized equipment brought by the Chinese rescue team has helped narrow the search for survivors trapped beneath the rubble, Kenya Red Cross Emergency Operations Manager Anthony Muchiri said.

"When the team arrived in the afternoon, they did not go to the hotel. They said, 'We are going straight to the site,'" Muchiri said.

Specialized equipment

Zhang Yuran of Blue Sky Rescue said the team signed a memorandum with the Kenya Red Cross in August and also opened a joint search and rescue coordination office at the Kenya Red Cross headquarters. The office is intended to coordinate joint operations and training, while providing access to specialized search and rescue equipment for emergency response.

The Chinese team visited Kenya in August for a two-week training program involving 23 Kenya Red Cross personnel and seven members of the Kenya Defence Forces' disaster response battalion, said Muchiri.

All the participants are now involved in the rescue operation, he said, adding that the training had strengthened Kenya's capacity to respond to emergencies involving collapsed structures.

"We really appreciate Blue Sky Rescue and the People's Republic of China for the support they have accorded to the country," Muchiri said, describing the team's deployment as an example of cooperation between the two countries during emergencies.

William Sifuna, the site commander in charge of the multiagency team, also praised a Chinese company for providing an excavator and a crane to support the operation.

Sifuna said the excavator, provided by the Kenya office of Chinese construction machinery manufacturer Xuzhou Construction Machinery Group, or XCMG, had helped rescuers reach two people who were pulled from beneath the rubble on Saturday.

The two survivors were taken to Kenyatta National Hospital for treatment and have since been discharged.

He said the machinery provided by the Chinese company had supplemented the equipment provided by the Kenyan government and remained available to the rescue teams until the rescue operation was completed.

Ma Jiming, an employee at XCMG Kenya office, said the company contacted Kenyan authorities after learning of the building collapse and arranged to send the machinery to the site on Saturday.

"Chinese companies have undertaken numerous infrastructure projects in Kenya, and our machinery has also been used in previous rescue efforts following disasters. We will continue to provide support whenever it is needed," Ma said.