Search teams in Mombasa retrieved one body from a 120-foot deep septic tank after two people died therein on Sunday.
The body of Abdallah Aziz Abadallah, 54 was retrieved on Tuesday at about 12.49 am.
The team said they will continue with the mission to retrieve a second body believed to be in the septic tank.
Mombasa County executive committee member for transport and infrastructure Dan Manyala confirmed retrieval of one body from the septic tank.
“Retrieval of the first body from the tragic site has been safely concluded. Excavation is on for the second victim,” Manyala said.
The body was preserved at Coast Referral Hospital morgue awaiting a postmortem and further processing.
Mombasa County chief fire officer Ibrahim Basafar said they had confirmed there were only two bodies in the septic tank that caved in Sunday evening at Bamburi’s Mwisho area of Kadzandani ward, Nyali subcounty.
Preliminary reports Sunday evening had indicated that there were about four people who drowned into the 120 feet septic tank.
The tank was old, built more than 40 years ago.
“We have since confirmed that the bodies in the septic tank are two after one of those thought to have sunk was seen eating beans at a neighbouring eatery and he is the one who confirmed to us that only two sunk into the pit,” Basafar said.
A team of rescuers camped the area to plan how to empty the septic tank to reach the site where the bodies are.
They had gone to watch English Premier League matches at a video café that was built on top of the septic tank.
Basafar said the owner of the video café did not know that there was a septic tank beneath the café because the septic tank was built so long ago that there have been at least three different buyers of the land over the last four decades.
Efforts to retrieve the bodies began at around midnight Sunday by the drainage of the sewage from the septic tank that took about seven hours to Monday around 7.15am.
Basafar said efforts to retrieve the bodies will take about six hours once all the machineries needed are in place.
These include a shovel, culverts, lights, and oxygen equipment, among others, he said.
Basafar said they could not send their officers into the septic tank without proper protective gear.
“We cannot just send someone inside because there is a lot of methane,” Basafar said.
Methane causes a lack of oxygen and can damage the lungs.
A sewage exhauster from the Mombasa County water department was used to drain the sewage from the septic tank.
The county government had also ordered for culverts, which will be used by rescue officers inside the septic tank when retrieving the bodies.
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