4 people rescued 6 days after Kenyan building collapse

NAIROBI, Kenya -- Rescuers found four more survivors Thursday in the rubble of an apartment building that collapsed six days ago amid heavy rains in the Kenyan capital, raising hopes more people might still be alive in a disaster that left 36 dead and dozens missing.

One of those rescued was a pregnant woman, although her husband said amid the joy of finding her alive, doctors also told him their baby had not survived.

Soldiers, firefighters and volunteers have been working around the clock since the April 29 collapse of the seven-story building in a desperate search, and their spirits were lifted first Tuesday when a nearly 6-month-old girl was found relatively unscathed in a wash basin.

Then on Thursday, they pulled three women and a man from the debris, police chief Japheth Koome said.

One of the women, 24-year-old Elizabeth Night Odhiambo, was eight months pregnant, said her husband, Stephen Onyango.

A crowd broke into applause as Odhiambo -- under a blanket and with her face covered with an oxygen mask -- was carried on a stretcher to an ambulance in a scene broadcast live on Kenyan TV.

After she was brought to the hospital, Odhiambo underwent an emergency cesarean section, and doctors told Onyango the baby had died in the womb.

Despite the loss of their child, Onyango said he was joyful his wife was still alive.

"I cannot say the happiness I have," the truck driver said in an telephone interview. "I have never had such happiness like this in my life."

He said he was able to speak with his wife after the surgery to comfort her.

Before military engineers broke through slabs of concrete that had trapped Odhiambo in a corner of the building, medics had managed to give her oxygen and an intravenous drip of water and glucose, according to Kenya's Disaster Management Unit.

At least 70 people remain missing, said Kenya Red Cross head Abbas Gullet, and rescuers were working around the clock to find any other survivors.

The April 29 collapse in Nairobi's low-income Huruma neighborhood came amid Kenya's April-May rainy season.

The Kenya Red Cross said 150 building units and adjacent homes were affected.

A neighbor said the collapsed building had been constructed rapidly and poorly, and its more than 125 single rooms were snapped up quickly at a rent of $35 per month.

It was built less than 15 feet from a river, when it should have been six times that distance, local lawmaker Steven Kariuki said.