Death toll in Baku house collapse accident rises to 8

The death toll in the Baku house collapse accident has risen to right, Health Minister Samaya Mamedova said on Wednesday
Rescuers found the body of a woman and a child under the debris in the evening. They are believed to have been passing by when the multi-storey building collapsed on Tuesday.
One of the builders who was working at the construction side died in hospital on Wednesday.
During the day, the Emergencies Ministry, the Interior Ministry, and Prosecutor General’s Office issued a report saying that five people had been killed and five injured.
The 16-storey building in Baku collapsed due to the violation of construction safety rules and the failure to observe relevant building technology requirements, specialists said.
The Emergencies Ministry, the Interior Ministry and the Prosecutor’s General Office said in a statement that four people – Mutafakkir Company Director General Ali Muradov, engineer Asker Aliyev, and construction managers Farkhad Gasanov and Gadir Salimov -- had been detained and accused of “violation of safety rules during the construction works that led to the loss of life and other serious consequences”.
Earlier in the day, Baku Prosecutor Aziz Seidov said there might be another four or five people under the debris.
The rescue operation on the site went through the night, the Emergencies Ministry said.
Heavy machinery is clearing off the debris, ambulance vehicles are on the standby, and the area is cordoned.
Azerbaijani President Ilkham Aliyev inspected the site where a multi-storey building under construction collapsed.
Aliyev instructed all structures to conduct a technical expertise of all new houses in Baku, Prime Minister Abid Shafirov said. “A special group will be set up that will study necessary parameters of new houses, including their seismic resistance. Then necessary decisions will be taken,” the prime minister added.
Construction workers were trapped under the debris of the house, which was being built three kilometres from downtown Baku. The death toll has reached seven, the Azerbaijani Ministry for Emergency Situations reported. Reports say at least six people were injured. Two of them are in grave condition.
According to rescuers, voices still can be heard from under the rubble. Rescue work continues at the site with the use of heavy machinery.
The site is still cordoned off by police, who are trying to keep away reporters and relatives of builders who may have been trapped under the rubble.
“The preliminary theory of this accident is the flagrant violation of safety rules in the construction process,” chief of the civil defence department of the Emergency Situations Ministry Kamil Bagirov said. Tenants of nearby houses said that the unfinished building looked shaky and had numerous cracks in the walls.
“A huge crack formed in the building shortly before the accident and it went down,” an eyewitness said.
According to the local media, tenants of nearby houses asked the court to ban the construction, which was too close to their homes.
A criminal case has been opened against heads of the Mutafakkir company, which was building the house, Azerbaijani Prosecutor General Zakir Garalov said at the accident scene. Two company executives were taken into custody.
The house was under construction in a busy area. The cost of one square metre varies from 500 U.S. dollars to 800 U.S. dollars. The housing prices are even higher in the central areas of Baku – from 1,500 U.S. dollars to 5,000 U.S. dollars.