Babies Killed in Guinea-Bissau Building Collapse

A four-storey building in Guinea-Bissau has collapsed, killing 11 people including two babies, a hospital source and a local resident told AFP on Tuesday.


The accident took place on Monday in the town of Canchungo to the north of the impoverished west African country.

Rescuers retrieved four bodies from the building on Monday and seven more on Tuesday, the hospital source said.

Two babies, aged six and eight months, were among the victims, the source added. Two more people were injured.

A local resident said the building belonged to a traditional doctor who was receiving patients at the time of the collapse. Several children were also watching a football game on the fourth floor.

Architect Batica Pereira told a radio station that the collapse was probably caused by a failure to meet safety standards. "The foundations [of the building] couldn't support more than a single floor," he said.

Guinea-Bissau, a former Portuguese colony that won independence in 1974, ranks among the very lowest countries on the United Nations' Human Development Index.