| (BSS/AFP) - A Malaysian man has been killed as a building collapsed in the northern Philippines on Sunday, partially crushing an adjacent hotel and trapping construction workers who screamed in pain as rescuers attempted to pull them from beneath the rubble, officials said.
Twenty people were missing more than 14 hours after the collapse of the nine-storey building which also damaged the hotel, killing a 65-year-old Malaysian guest, they said.
Twenty-six people have been rescued so far after the under-construction building collapsed on itself and the hotel in Angeles City, 80 kilometres (50 miles) north of the capital Manila.
Acting Philippine fire chief Rico Kwan Tiu told AFP the Malaysian hotel guest had managed to communicate with rescuers by phone while pinned under a hotel wall shortly after the accident occurred at 3:00 am Sunday (1900 GMT Saturday).
"Unfortunately, when we retrieved him just now, he is already lifeless," Kwan Tiu added.
"We will continue the rescue until such time that we are able to locate those who were trapped. There are still people alive. I am certain."
Rescuers conducting the initial assessment "heard someone crying out in pain" from under the rubble, Maria Leah Sajili, the Bureau of Fire Protection regional spokesperson, told reporters.
City Mayor Carmelo Lazatin told reporters "almost all of (those inside the collapsed building) were asleep because this happened in the early hours of the morning".
Video clips posted by rescuers on the regional fire bureau`s Facebook page showed a fireman using a power tool to free a man in a blue shirt who moaned in pain beneath a scaffolding of metal tubes and plyboard.
"Relax, brother," the rescuer, a fireman, is heard comforting the victim.
Another clip showed firemen in their orange helmets and clothing inserting themselves through narrow gaps among rubble in an attempt to find other trapped workers.
"We are trying to rescue two (workers). They are conscious but pinned underneath. Hopefully we will be able to get them out before dark," Kwan Tiu told AFP.
The cause of the collapse is yet to be determined.
The Metropolitan Manila Development Authority sent rescue equipment and police dogs to aid the rescue, its general manager Nicolas Torre told AFP.
"We also deployed life monitors, listening devices and also our rescue spreaders to help the rescuers since many debris need to be cut and lifted to locate people," Torre said.
- `Loud noise` -
Earlier, delivery rider James Bernardo, 30, told AFP by telephone he had just dropped off food on the same street when the disaster occurred.
"A few seconds later there was suddenly a loud noise in the area, and when I looked, I realised that (the building) had already collapsed," Bernardo said.
"Thank God I`m safe."
A video clip taken by Bernardo and verified by AFP showed a giant pile of twisted steel beams, power pylons and slabs of concrete blocking the street as fellow witnesses took photographs with their phones.
In the clip Bernardo can be heard saying, "We thought it was an earthquake, but it turned out it was the building (collapsing)."
City information officer Jay Pelayo told AFP the nine-storey building`s walls and scaffolding had buckled, likely trapping people in a pile of debris.
"There are big chunks of concrete, and we need equipment to lift them up. That is what`s challenging for the rescue right now," Pelayo said.
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