By AFP | Dec 23, 2009

Two killed in Indonesia building collapse

Two people were killed when an illegal extension to a busy shopping mall collapsed in central Jakarta on Wednesday, police and city officials said.

Another 12 people were been taken to hospital, three with serious injuries, after the third and fourth floors of the building collapsed beside the Metro Tanah Abang shopping mall, police said.

"The victims died of blood loss after they were pinned under the rubble," central Jakarta police chief Hamidin said. "The life detection apparatus we used didn't detect anymore bodies, so we stopped the search."

 

City officials said the building, which was still under construction, was an unauthorised annex to the mall.

"This extension was built illegally. We'll take strong action against the building management," central Jakarta mayor Sylviana Murni said, without explaining how construction had been allowed to begin in the first place.

A construction worker named Suri said his supervisors had been warned that the structure was unsound."Last evening I saw a crack joining the section to the main building and told my boss, but nothing was done. This morning we resumed work and the section just fell off," he told AFP.