Rescue effort renewed at Canadian mall collapse

(Reuters) - Rescue workers in the northern Ontario town of Elliot Lake renewed their search on Tuesday for survivors in the rubble of a collapsed shopping mall, hours after emergency workers had suspended efforts because the two-story mall was unstable.

"There are efforts underway at this time," town spokeswoman Kate Matuszewski said.

One person is confirmed dead and another is believed to have died in the collapse at the Algo Centre Mall. Signs of life including tapping had been detected Monday morning but hope had faded as rescue efforts stretched into a third day.

Elliot Lake resident Gary Gendron said he believes his fiancée Lucie Aylwin, who worked at a lottery kiosk in the mall, is still alive under the rubble because the couple routinely tapped a code to each other to show their love.

"I know she's still alive," a tearful Gendron told the Canadian Broadcasting Corp television. "As soon as she gets well we're going to get married."

Authorities had called off the search late on Monday after giving up hope of finding anyone alive inside the damaged portion of the mall, whose rooftop parking lot collapsed into the mall during busy afternoon shopping hours on Saturday.

But outrage from residents of the former mining town and an appeal from Ontario Premier Dalton McGuinty persuaded officials to renew the effort.

Rescue teams were working now from the outside of the mall inwards because the structure is too unstable to enter without dismantling portions of the damaged building.

The collapse had sent at least one parked vehicle as well as concrete and metal raining into the mall below, opening a huge hole in its roof.

"I have spoken to Emergency Management Ontario and the Heavy Urban Search and Rescue Team and have instructed them to determine if there is any other way possible to reach any victims without endangering our rescuers, including the use of equipment to dismantle the building from the exterior," McGuinty said in a statement.

"I believe we owe it to the families waiting for word of their loved ones to leave no stone unturned."

At least 22 people were injured in the collapse, none seriously. Rescue teams from Toronto have been assisting in efforts to reach trapped survivors, but have been pulled out of the building because an escalator holding up portions of the second story showed signs of imminent collapse.

Police said 30 people were unaccounted for, a list that had grown from nine. But there was no way of knowing how many of those were in the mall at the time of collapse.

Authorities were focusing mostly on two missing people whose vehicles were found in the mall's parking lot.

Workers located a severed hand and foot in the rubble, authorities said on Sunday. The death was confirmed on Monday.

Extraction teams, including dogs trained to locate people trapped beneath debris, have traveled to Elliot Lake, once a uranium-mining town and now a retirement community about 335 miles (539 km) northwest of Toronto.

Numerous people have said the mall had a history of roof problems, including leaking ceilings and rusted beams that were reported to have been visible, according to media reports.

Overhead photos taken soon after the collapse showed several vehicles remained parked on the undamaged part of the rooftop lot. The collapse opened up a large, rectangular space and a clear view of the shopping concourse below.

(Reporting By Andrea Hopkins; Editing by Frank McGurty)