ANGELES CITY, Philippines: Rescuers were racing on Sunday (May 24) to free two workers pinned under a building that collapsed in the northern Philippines, killing a Malaysian man and leaving 20 people missing.

The search for survivors continued as night fell, with firemen shining small lights into the rubble for signs of life.

Twenty-six people have been rescued so far after the nine-storey building collapsed in Angeles City, 80km north of the capital Manila.

The disaster also damaged a nearby hotel and killed a 65-year-old Malaysian guest, Mohd Rezal bin Abdullah, officials said.

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The man, from Malaysia’s Sabah state, had managed to communicate with rescuers by phone while pinned under a hotel wall shortly after the collapse at 3.00am on Sunday, acting Philippine fire chief Rico Kwan Tiu told AFP.

“Unfortunately, when we retrieved him just now, he was already lifeless,” he added.

“We are trying to rescue two (workers)” from the nine-storey building, Kwan Tiu said.

“They are conscious but pinned underneath.”

City Mayor Carmelo Lazatin told reporters “almost all of (those inside the collapsed building) were asleep because this happened in the early hours of the morning”.

Rescuers posted footage on the regional fire service’s Facebook page showing a fireman using a power tool to try to free a man in a blue shirt who moaned in pain beneath a scaffolding of metal tubes and plyboard.

“Relax, brother,” the rescuer, a fireman, is heard comforting the victim.

Another clip showed firemen in their orange helmets and clothing inserting themselves through narrow gaps among rubble in an attempt to find other trapped workers.

“We are trying to rescue two (workers). They are conscious but pinned underneath. Hopefully we will be able to get them out before dark,” Kwan Tiu told AFP.  

The cause of the collapse is yet to be determined.

Officials told reporters that planning records showed the building was intended as a nine-storey condo-hotel under the approved permit, but that a swimming pool was being constructed on a 10th floor.

“LOUD NOISE”

Delivery rider James Bernardo, 30, told AFP by telephone he had just dropped off food on the same street when the disaster occurred.

“A few seconds later there was suddenly a loud noise in the area, and when I looked, I realised that (the building) had already collapsed,” Bernardo said.

“Thank God I’m safe.”

A video clip taken by Bernardo and verified by AFP showed a giant pile of twisted steel beams, power pylons and slabs of concrete blocking the street as fellow witnesses took photographs with their phones.

In the clip Bernardo can be heard saying, “We thought it was an earthquake, but it turned out it was the building (collapsing).”

City information officer Jay Pelayo told AFP the nine-storey building’s walls and scaffolding had buckled, likely trapping people in a pile of debris.

“There are big chunks of concrete, and we need equipment to lift them up. That is what’s challenging for the rescue right now,” Pelayo said.

Rescuers working at the disaster site did not have powerful flood lights to help them locate those trapped under the rubble, AFP journalists saw.

The Metropolitan Manila Development Authority sent rescue equipment and police dogs to aid the rescue, its general manager Nicolas Torre told AFP. 

“We also deployed life monitors, listening devices and also our rescue spreaders to help the rescuers since many debris need to be cut and lifted to locate people,” Torre said.