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Rescuers pulled two workers from the rubble of a collapsed nine-story hotel under construction in the northern Philippines early Monday, as the death toll rose to three and 17 others remained missing, officials said. One of the rescued workers was found dead, while emergency workers tried for hours to revive the other inside an ambulance near the huge pile of broken concrete, twisted steel bars and collapsed scaffolding that once formed the building in Angeles City of Pampanga province. Doctors later declared him dead. The two workers had been trapped under heavy concrete slabs and metal bars for hours. Hundreds of rescuers, including firefighters and police, worked through the night to reach them. Regional police chief Brig. Gen. Jess Mendez said rescuers even provided water and intravenous medicine to one trapped worker in an effort to keep him alive in the intense summer heat. “He never made it despite all the efforts,” Mendez told AP. The third victim was a Malaysian tourist who was trapped inside a nearby budget hotel damaged by falling debris from the collapse. Another guest was injured but managed to escape, officials said. The unfinished building collapsed with a loud crash before dawn Sunday following a strong thunderstorm. Despite growing fears, Angeles City Mayor Carmelo Lazatin said rescue operations would continue and authorities were still hoping to find survivors. “My best hope is that we can rescue more people alive,” Lazatin told AP. “We don’t want to give the families of the trapped workers any bad news.” Relatives of the missing workers have been waiting anxiously near the disaster site. Lea Mendoza Casilao, a 47-year-old sardine factory worker, said her boyfriend, a mason working at the site, was among those still trapped. “I’m losing hope because of what I see — slow rescue work,” she said. She had brought a week’s supply of rice and sardines for him at the construction site, but the couple never got the chance to meet over the weekend after the building collapsed. Officials said rescuers were moving carefully because unstable concrete slabs hanging on bent scaffolding could fall at any moment and endanger rescue teams. Authorities said 26 workers either escaped or were rescued from the building, where many workers slept on plywood sheets on the ground floor. Of the 17 still missing, rescuers have located one worker but have not yet been able to pull him out. Philippine National Police chief Gen. Jose Melencio Nartatez Jr. said authorities have launched an investigation into the cause of the collapse and possible violations of construction safety rules. Angeles City once hosted one of the largest US Air Force bases outside the United States, helping turn the area into a major commercial and entertainment hub in northern Luzon. The former Clark Air Base, about 80 kilometers north of Manila, closed in the early 1990s and has since been transformed into the Clark Freeport Zone, now a busy industrial and tourism area.

The death toll in the collapse of a hotel in eastern China was raised to 17 Wednesday as authorities ended the search and rescue mission. The city of Suzhou said on its social media feed that 23 people had been pulled from from the rubble of the Siji Kaiyuan Hotel, which collapsed on Monday afternoon. One of those freed was uninjured and five others were sent to a hospital for treatment. Read: Search in Florida collapse to take weeks; deaths reach 90 Rescuers used cranes, ladders, metal cutters and search dogs to look for survivors. Most of those killed were hotel guests. More than 600 people including earthquake rescue teams and 120 vehicles were mobilized for the operation. Suzhou city is in Jiangsu province near Shanghai. Read:Recovery workers vow not to let up in Florida condo collapse Jiangsu’s highest official, Communist Party Secretary, Lou Qinjian, visited with rescuers and victims on Tuesday, the city said. Investigators would look into the cause of the collapse and police have subpoenaed the hotel’s legal representatives, managers and those who worked on the design and construction of the building, the posting said. Some had been placed under “criminal control measures,” it said, indicating they were under some form of detention or supervision. No numbers or names were given for those under such measures. Read: Crews give up hope of finding survivors at collapse site The three-floor, 54-room Siji Kaiyuan Hotel opened in 2018, according to Ctrip, a Chinese online booking app. Suzhou is a popular tourist destination known for its historic canals and traditional Chinese gardens, as well as a major business center.

A hotel used for medical observation of people who had contact with coronavirus patients collapsed in southeastern China on Saturday, trapping some 70 people, state media reported. There were no immediate reports of deaths.

New Orleans, Oct 13 (AP/UNB) — A large section of a Hard Rock Hotel under construction beside New Orleans' historic French Quarter collapsed Saturday amid blinding dust and flying debris, killing two people and injuring more than 20. Rescue workers searched the largely unstable building for one person still unaccounted for.