Women and children are among 36 people now known to have died when a hotel under construction at a tourist centre in Cambodia collapsed as workers celebrated a seventh-floor slab pour.
The building came down on the afternoon of Friday, 3 January in the coastal town of Kep, about 160km southwest of Phnom Penh.
Workers and their families were living at the construction site, a common practice in Cambodia, and were having an impromptu party after the day’s work, survivors told Reuters.
Cambodian officials said six children and 14 women were among the deceased rescuers pulled from the wreckage in the 48 hours after the collapse.
Twenty-three people were found alive.
According to reports, a Cambodian couple who were the building’s owners have been detained.
In June 2019, dozens of people including workers died in Cambodia when an un-permitted seven-storey condominium building under construction in Sihanoukville collapsed.Â
Image ©GCR, illustration by Denis Carrier
