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STAFF REPORTER BRIGADE & J. JIMENEZ FIRE fighters wearing breathing apparatus and protective clothing had to force their way into a closed up property in Palma to rescue an 84-year-old woman and her unemployed son from the accumulated mountain of rubbish and waste in which they have been living.


The woman was assisted off the premises and admitted to hospital on Monday when fire fighters first broke into the house but they returned to the scene yesterday as the hunt for the elderly woman's missing son continued amongst the bags of refuse and rats.

The house in calle Carlos Riba, had been converted into a “bunker.” All of the doors and windows had been closed on the inside and padlocked.
Firefighters had to smash their way through four barricaded windows in order to get into the property. The alarm had been raised by neighbours complaining about the smell and worried that neither the woman nor her son had been seen recently. Many nervously watched the operation yesterday, eagerly awaiting news of the missing man.