Wall collapse victim remembered
A young man killed in yesterday's brick wall collapse in Melbourne is being remembered as a person many people looked up to, and put 100 per cent into everything he did.
Alexander Jones, 19, from Montmorency and a 30-year-old woman were killed at the scene when a 15-metre long section of brick wall fell onto Swanston Street in Carlton on Thursday afternoon.
A 19-year-old woman, also believed to be from Montmorency, suffered life-threatening injuries in the collapse.
She has undergone surgery and remains in a critical condition, a spokesman at Royal Melbourne Hospital said on Friday.
Known by his friends as Xander, Alexander was school captain of Montmorency Secondary College in 2011, and student of the year 12 months earlier.
His friends gathered this afternoon to celebrate a promising life cut short.
"He was just the guy everyone knew and everyone loved him," friend Megan Jamieson told Seven News. "A lot of people looked up to him, put 100 per cent into everything he did.
"He wanted to get into politics. He wanted to be the Prime Minister one day."
Police have taken statements from dozens of witnesses, but they believe there were other people hurt in the collapse that have not come forward.
Detective Senior Constable Brooke Manley said police want to speak to anyone who was injured in the incident, helped with the rescue or who saw it happen, including passengers on passing trams.
"Our advice from the fire brigade is that there were other people injured," Det Manley told reporters on Friday.
"Those people have left the scene through fear of remaining, being that they weren't entirely sure what the incident was, whether it was a wall collapsing or something on a larger scale."
Det Manley said police were also keen to hear from anyone who may have recorded video footage of the collapse on a mobile phone.
Police were working through a large volume of witnesses but needed as many people as possible to come forward, she said.
Det Manley said the families of the victims are devastated.
"It's horrendous. It's an unfortunate, very tragic accident that has occurred on the eve of a long weekend," she said.
She said police did not have any concerns about the safety of other walls in the city.
Eyewitnesses said a swarm of people desperately dug through bricks and rubble to help those trapped beneath when the wall collapsed about 3pm (AEDT).
"I just frantically ran across and started digging because I could see their head and half their torso out, so I was frantically taking the bricks off her," Martin Setka told AAP.
"The whole wall just gave way."
Another witness, Jonathan Lian, described the site as a war zone.
The collapse occurred at the old Carlton & United brewery site, which is now a vacant building lot owned by construction company Grocon.
The company said it plans to develop the site, which it purchased in 2006, but there is no construction work currently under way.
Police are investigating the collapse alongside WorkSafe and will prepare a report for the coroner.
