Nine people die when a tunnel wall collapses in the Dominican Republic

Nine people died when a concrete wall of one of the tunnels of an avenue in the capital of the Dominican Republic collapsed due to heavy rains and flooding generated by a tropical system in the Caribbean Sea, authorities reported on Sunday.

The wall, which is part of the infrastructure built to speed up traffic in the capital district, collapsed at the end of Saturday afternoon when many people were circulating despite the alerts issued by emergency agencies.

“We recovered about nine bodies (four women and five men) in that area”he told The Associated Press Delfin RodriguezDeputy Director of Civil Defense Operations.

He explained that the concrete wall of the wall crushed several of the vehicles that were circulating at that time through the center of the capital, while the floods swept away cars and flooded homes.

“So far we have 30 provinces on alert, of which 14 are in red (the maximum level)”indicated Rodriguez.

A 22-year-old girl also died when a wall of a house fell on her in another sector of the capital.said the official.

The authorities reported that they were working on updating the figures and searching for the missing.

At least 1,583 homes have been affected by the floods, 7,915 people displaced to safer areas and 1,315,000 users of the national energy system are without service due to the downpours, according to authorities.