| The Daily Star |
BEIRUT: Two people died Sunday, including a 15-year-old girl, after a five-story building collapsed in the Fassouh neighborhood in the Ashrafieh district of Beirut Sunday.
Ann-Marie Abdel Karim was pronounced dead upon arrival at al-Roum Hospital.
More than 10 others were pulled out alive from under the rubble. At least 40 people are still believed to be trapped underneath the building.
Civil Defense personnel, the Red Cross and the Lebanese Army arrived at the scene to help rescue residents.
Army officials at the scene are asking people to evacuate the area, warning that some buildings might also collapse, while Civil Defense has brought heavy machinery and bulldozers in a bid to remove the rubble and rescue trapped residents.
Around two dozen people are on top of the rubble looking for trapped residents, while Red Cross personnel have surrounded the collapsed building attending to those rescued.
Some people have been seen coming out of the rubble bloodied.
Health Minister Ali Hasan Khalil, who arrived at the scene hours after the building collapsed, described the incident as a humanitarian disaster and urged officials to help prevent similar incidents from occurring in the future.
“This is a humanitarian disaster ... [we] should work on preventing any repetition of such an incident,” Khalil told reporters.
Beirut MPs along with Interior Minister Marwan Charbel have arrived to the scene of the rubble including lawmaker Jean Oghassapian who said there were voices being heard under the rubble asking for help.
Security officials have asked people to remain quiet in order to hear those calling for help from underneath.
Charbel told reporters that more help would arrive to assist in the evacuation process.
“There is more help coming to the area to assist in the evacuation process and pull people still trapped under the rubble,” Charbel said.
Among the 10 rescued, two women, a Filipino and Lebanese, were transported to a hospital nearby after being pulled from the rubble. Three hospitals in Ashrafieh have announced their readiness to accept injured people.
The Lebanese woman said her family was still under the rubble, adding that the building was old and in a bad condition, security sources said.
A Red Cross spokesperson said that ambulances have headed to the building and that no clear information regarding the number of people trapped under the rubble was available.
“The ambulances belonging to the Red Cross have arrived at the scene and we are now working to remove people from under the rubble,” Iyad Munzir, a spokesperson for the Lebanese Red Cross, told The Daily Star.
“We don’t have any clear information on the crisis,” he added.
Bystander Nicolas Abourjeily told The Daily Star that he had heard a big crash a block away from his building in Ashrafieh around 6 p.m.
“I saw a cloud of dust covering the area and saw some people coming up who were severely injured,” Abourjeily, 20, said.
The apartment block is known to be in an area of mainly old buildings. It included 10 apartments each with a monthly rent of LL25,000.
The rescued woman, who said she was from Al Abdel Karim family, also said that the weeklong rain storm which hit the capital may have contributed to the collapse of the building.
The Lebanese Army has blocked roads leading to the scene.
Read more: http://www.dailystar.com.lb/News/Local-News/2012/Jan-15/159938-residents-trapped-as-five-story-building-collapses-in-beirut.ashx#ixzz1k3MlvvYZ
(The Daily Star :: Lebanon News :: http://www.dailystar.com.lb)
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