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U.S. Joins Rubble Search; 4 Children Found Alive

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The Tampa Tribune

Published: November 9, 2008

PETIONVILLE - Rescuers pulled four children alive Saturday from the rubble of a three-story Haitian school that collapsed on classrooms filled with students and teachers, killing at least 84 people.

Emergency workers cradled the dazed children in their arms and rushed them into ambulances Saturday morning, U.N. police spokesman Andre Leclerc said. The extent of the injuries to the two girls, ages 3 and 5, and two boys, a 7-year-old and a teenager, was unknown, Leclerc said.
President Rene Preval said poor construction, including a lack of steel reinforcement, was to blame for Friday's collapse of the concrete structure. Late Saturday night, Haitian police said the owner of the school had been arrested.
Search teams from the United States and France on Saturday joined the hunt for survivors in the remains of the College La Promesse in suburban Port-au-Prince, which tumbled to the ground a day earlier. Thousands of Haitians cheered and shouted directions to rescuers, and trucks carrying oxygen and other medical supplies rumbled up the mountainside.

Nadia Lochar, civil protection coordinator for the western region that includes Petionville, said the death toll had risen to 84 and that another 150 people were injured in the collapse. Roughly 500 children and teenagers typically crowded into Petionville's three-story school building.
Local authorities used bare hands to pull bleeding students from the wreckage before heavy equipment and international teams began arriving Saturday.

The Associated Press

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