The Electronic Telegraph 25 April 1995 WORLD NEWS
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EXHAUSTED rescue workers painstakingly moved lumps of concrete by hand yesterday as they came close to reaching at least 13 children buried under a huge pile of rubble in the heart of the devastated office building in Oklahoma City.
As the official death toll climbed to 81, leaders of the salvage operation refused to admit to giving up hope of finding survivors, but no one has been pulled out alive since Thursday.
Rescue efforts concentrated on a central pile of rubble dubbed "The Pit" because it comprises the wreckage of the front section of nine floors pancaked into one solid mass.
"The Pit" has become a temporary burial mound for most of the victims, including many of the children who were playing in a second- floor nursery when the huge fertiliser bomb exploded at the end of Wednesday morning's rush-hour. The nursery bore the brunt of the blast, then of the rubble falling from upper floors and 13 children are already confirmed dead, with at least 13 more still buried in the debris.
A television reporter allowed into the area yesterday saw children's toys and an LP record with the song Ring Around the Alphabet lying amid the devastation.
Elsewhere, firemen found the body of a US Marine, still seated in the desk chair in which he died. A Marine Corps recruiting station was one of several government offices which had space in the Alfred P Murrah federal building.
Five days after the blast, the Fire Department refused to say exactly how many people were still thought to be in the building.
But it is certain the eventual toll will exceed 200, making it the worst act of terrorism on American soil.
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