A search team has detected a light signal, believed to be coming from the cellphone of a possible survivor trapped under three metres of debris, as four more bodies were recovered last night from the rubble of the collapsed SAO building.
A rescue official from the Phetkasem Foundation told Thai PBS reporters this morning that light—believed to be from a cellphone—was detected about three metres deep in Zone B of the debris pile. A miniature camera was inserted toward the source of the light, and rescuers called out, but there was no vocal response.
One rescuer then asked the possible survivor to turn the phone’s light on and off. This time, there was a response. An urban search and rescue team was quickly dispatched to the scene, and an infrared scanner produced the thermal image of what appeared to be a person.
The official said, however, that it could not yet be confirmed that someone is trapped beneath the debris, but the team has accelerated efforts to reach the location.
Pakkaphol Metheepakdee, a volunteer with the Phetkasem Foundation, said today that the infrared scanner had detected images believed to be two people, buried at depths of one and three metres, respectively.
He noted that this is an extremely positive sign.
An official update on the search, rescue, and recovery operations is expected later today. The current death toll stands at 23, with 71 people still missing.
