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Continuation,... She said solutions were sought over the years to provide better housing for the 10 families who lived there. An initial plan to reinforce and renovate the convent was ruled out. The families were then to be offered land and credit to build their own houses. But they say neither materialised. Now that the worst has happened, some cannot contain their anger. "They've been promising solutions for years. But it's all been lies and we're tired of it. Now we've lost a woman who was like a mother to me," Yurliany Tamayo cried, unusually vocal for Cuba. She says she managed to snatch her own child back from the edge, just in time. Ms Tamayo and the other residents are staying with friends for now; the authorities have yet to propose a more permanent solution. But as the digger continues its slow work shifting the rubble, there is already concern about the parts of the building still standing. "If they don't demolish this place now, ...

In the Vibora suburb of Havana, a vast yellow building now has a gaping hole at the heart of it. On Monday morning, a column collapsed bringing four storeys of the old convent crashing down and burying 50-year-old Maria Isabel Fernandez under the rubble. For 24 hours, rescue teams battled to reach her. When their radars and even specially trained sniffer rabbits found no signs of life, they moved to securing the rest of the ruins and recovering her body. The story of Ms Fernandez is not an unusual one in a city where neglect, lack of funds and a series of devastating hurricanes have left chunks of the housing stock in a poor to perilous state. Officials say that on average two buildings completely collapse in Havana every month. Stark choices We had nowhere else to go, we needed a roof over our heads Resident of a collapsed building in Havana The old convent where Ms Fernandez lived was used as a school after the 1959 Cuban revolution, until part of a corridor caved in and the...