MEXICO CITY (AP) — A shopping mall under construction in the Mexican city of Monterrey collapsed Thursday, killing at least seven people and leaving another 10 missing, officials said.
Two people were pulled alive from the rubble, according to the civil defense office in the northern state of Nuevo Leon, where Monterrey is located. An official with the office, who was not authorized to talk to the press and spoke on condition of anonymity, provided the death toll.
Photos taken by the office showed emergency personnel hauling the injured men out of the rubble. About 100 emergency personnel were looking for more people who may be trapped.
The concrete slabs of the three-story structure appear to have pancaked, falling one atop another.
All of the victims appear to have been construction workers employed at the building site. Between 20 and 25 workers were believed to be working there when the collapse occurred.
In July, a newly opened shopping mall on the south side of Mexico City partially collapsed. A support beam at the Artz Pedregal mall failed, allowing operators to evacuate the mall so that no one was injured when the top floors collapsed about five minutes later. Parts of the mall had still been under construction even though it opened in March.
