At least 37 people may have died in the massive fire that ravaged1 a shopping mall in Davao City on Saturday.
菲律宾达沃市一家购物中心周六发生火灾,至少37人丧生。
Distraught relatives
wailed2 in grief as Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte announced the firefighters' grim
assessment3 on the victims' fate around 3:00 a.m. local time.
"According to the authorities still in the area, in that situation it's difficult to believe anyone can survive. Chance of survival is zero," Archbishop Romulo Valles, president of the Catholic
Bishops4' Conference of the Philippines (CBCP) quoted the president as saying.
Valles told reporters outside a restaurant where the president was meeting with relatives of the missing workers.
As of 5:00 a.m. on Sunday, at least 37 people are listed as missing following the blaze that destroyed parts of NCCC Mall of Davao, city
vice5 mayor Paolo Duterte, the president's son, said.
The president arrived at a restaurant where the
kin6 of the missing were gathered just across from the
smoldering7 four-storey
edifice8 past 9:00 p.m. on Saturday.