Rescuers, at no small risk to their own lives, reach into the rubble and haul a woman out. She’s dusty and dazed, but alive. In the toughest, tightest conditions, they keep digging with everything they have — pulling one man out after 44 hours, trapped beneath slabs of concrete.
In Bangkok, families of 76 workers are barely holding on to hope at the site of a fallen skyscraper. The search has been running around the clock.
Natt Hamon is there with her rescue dog, Simba, and describes what she’s seeing:
“You can see the rows of ambulances here, ready, waiting to rush any survivors to hospital. Unfortunately, they’re now thick with dust, waiting here for four days because the survivors haven’t come. There are still people inside. And we are hoping that they are survivors.”
The Thai government is under growing pressure to explain how the building collapsed. When asked how soon there might be answers, the response is cautious:
“Maybe not at this… not today, not at this hour.”
Natt, one of the first on the scene on Friday, plays down her role:
“It is important, but what I did is a very, very small part.”
She’ll return again tonight — this time with her cadaver dog, Tiny — a grim sign that the chances of finding anyone alive are narrowing.
In the last hour, Thailand’s Prime Minister visited the site to support the families still waiting and the rescue workers. A massive rescue effort remains underway.
Across the border in Myanmar, the situation is very different. Foreign rescue teams and aid have struggled to get access, largely because of the ongoing risk of violence — with the military government continuing to bomb rebel areas, even in recent days.