Accra: Rescue operation ends officially at the site of collapsed building: 14 dead, 67 rescued

The rescue mission operation at the collapsed Melcom shopping building in the Ghanaian capital, Accra has ended on Sunday evening.

Briefing news men after the operation at the site, the Ghana Armed Forces Public Relations Officer Colonel M'bawine Atintande said that the number of people found under the debris were 81.

14 people are dead with 67 being rescued alive and sent to different hospitals in the city as a result of lack of space for treatment due to the nature of the injuries they sustained he disclosed.  

“There are no other mortal remains, so we are clearing the debris and we hope that by the close of the day we would have cleared the place up so that investigations will continue,” Colonel Atintande said.

“There is the need for everybody to work together to make sure that we achieve the synergy of our efforts,” he added.

The five-day rescue exercise which began last Wednesday made up of the personnel from the Ghana Armed Force, the Police Service, Ghana National Ambulance Service, Zoomlion Ghana Limited, the National Disaster Management Organisation and a team of volunteers from Israel.

                     The collapsed of the shopping mall and responses

The shopping mall collapsed on early last Wednesday morning as workers of the mall were holding a morning devotion before business begins.

But it was later revealed that those who were trapped inside were not only the workers of the mall but some customers as well.

It is unclear how they got entry into the mall when normal working hours was not yet up.

There was tension and debate going on as to who should be blamed for the disaster prompting the questioning of some top members in charge of the management of the city and the owner of the building the Criminal Investigation Department of the Ghana Police Service.

The city is relatively calm as people are beginning to forget about the incident and resuming their usual business.