Sniffer dogs have been withdrawn from the collapsed State Audit Office building in Bangkok after 11 days of searching for survivors.
Investigators will start collecting evidence from amid the rubble on Tuesday as the probe begins in ernest into why the 30-storey unfinished building collapsed during the March 28 earthquake.
Suthikiart Sophanik, director of K9 USAR (canine urban search and rescue) Thailand, said on Monday that sniffer dogs normally worked a disaster site for seven to 10 days. The search at the site in Chatuchak district had continued for 11 days.
The dogs and their trainers had done their best and it was now time to bring in heavy machinery to remove the debris, he said.
K9 USAR Thailand deployed nine sniffer dogs and their trainers at collapse site and K9 USAR Canada had one dog there.
The investigation into why the building collapsed when other highrises in Bangkok remain structurally sound will begin on Tuesday. It will primarily involve the Department of Special Investigation, the Department of Public Works and Town and Country Planning and the Metropolitan Police Bureau.
Pol Maj Woranan Srilam, DSI director for consumer protection, said on Monday that DSI officials and inspectors from the public works department and the Thai Industrial Standards Institute would check the quality of the concrete and steel at the collapse site, and the DSI would look into the possible use of Thai nominees by the construction company.
He advised three Thai nationals listed as shareholders of China Railway No.10 Engineering Co to report to police and share what information they have with authorities. CREC 10 is part of the ITD-CREC consortium contracted to build the 30-storey State Audit Office at a cost of 2.1 billion baht.
Pol Maj Gen Noppasin Poonsawat, deputy commissioner of the Metropolitan Police Bureau, said police investigators would collect samples of steel rods, concrete used in the construction, and other material evidence, for examination.
