Four dead, 17 missing in Philippine building collapse

Two workers pinned beneath the wreckage were found alive after the nine-storey structure gave way Sunday, hitting a nearby hotel and killing a Malaysian guest.

The painstaking manual operation around 80 km (50 miles) north of the capital Manila underscored the difficulty of the rescue effort, ‌carried out under scorching heat, with authorities unable to rely on excavators and other machinery for fear that the unstable structure could shift further and bury any survivors deeper beneath the wreckage and rubble.

Rescuers are continuing to search for survivors trapped under the rubble a day after a hotel under construction collapsed, killing at least four people.

The victim was one of two found dead in Sector 2, where rescuers had detected no vital signs.