PETIONVILLE, Haiti — Crews cleared the remnants of a collapsed Haitian school Tuesday after the search for survivors ended.
Thousands watched from neighboring rooftops as a backhoe demolished parts of the building that still stood, revealing body parts that crews had not been able to reach. One woman buried her head between her knees as the remains of the school tumbled to the ground.
At least 89 people, mostly students, were killed when the College La Promesse suddenly collapsed Friday. The death toll had been 94, but officials revised it downward because some victims had been counted more than once.
Removal of the debris may reveal more bodies of people trapped when the building crashed down, said Nadia Lochard, the civil protection official in charge of the area.
Demolition was ordered because the hillside structure was so weak it could still have crumbled and taken out more homes, Lochard said.
More than 150 people were badly injured and two houses behind the school were destroyed in the hillside slum of Nerette, a maze of precarious buildings below the Port-au-Prince suburb of Petionville.
Searchers announced Monday that they did not expect to find more survivors or many more bodies from the huge pile of concrete and other debris.
Haitian authorities have said they suspect that poor construction, including a lack of steel reinforcement, caused the collapse and that the school’s owner has been detained on suspicion of involuntary manslaughter.
The government also pledged Tuesday to pay each grieving family about $2,500 to cover funeral costs, said Steven Benoit, who represents Petionville in the Haitian Parliament’s lower house.
