[ad_1]
Emergency workers search a collapsed building in Beirut, Lebanon.
Marwan Tahtah / Getty Images
- Sensors had detected pulse and breathing signs Thursday in the rubble where an explosion destroyed buildings in Beirut.
- Rescuers were digging through the rubble in hopes of finding someone alive.
- The explosion that occurred on August 4 killed about 190 people and injured 6,000.
Rescuers dug through the rubble of a Beirut building for a second day on Friday in hopes of finding someone alive more than a month after it was destroyed by a massive explosion at a port that ripped through the Lebanese capital.
But by early Friday afternoon, rescue teams, including a search and rescue team from Chile, had found no one in the rubble in the Gemmayze area, where sensors had detected pulse signs and signs on Thursday. breathing.
Gemmayze and the neighboring Mar Mikhael district are among the areas hardest hit by the August 4 explosion in the nearby port, caused by massive amounts of poorly stored ammonium nitrate.
The explosion killed about 190 people and injured 6,000, in a nation already paralyzed by the economic crisis. Church bells and the call to prayer from mosques rang out in Beirut to honor those killed a month earlier. The authorities also held ceremonies.
Quoting its correspondent, the Lebanese broadcaster MTV said that the machine used to detect breath had moved three times without detecting breath. A dog brought by the Chilean specialized team also participated in the effort.
Mechanical excavators raised pieces of concrete and masonry while workers used shovels and their hands to dig. A crane and a mechanical excavator helped lift steel beams and other heavy debris from the ruins.
Residents gathered nearby in hopes of finding someone, while some said the government hadn’t done enough to help.
“The government has been completely accommodating, it has been completely absent,” said Stephanie Bou Chedid, a volunteer with a group that helps victims of the blast.
President Michel Aoun followed up on the operation in a phone call with the head of civil defense, the presidency said.
Nearby, Mohamed Houry, 65, said he hoped they would find someone alive but, even if only bodies were discovered, “it is important that their families can find peace.”
The blast ripped through a swath of the capital, tearing apart districts like Gemmayze, home to many old and traditional buildings, some of which collapsed in the shock wave.
The building that was searched once housed a bar on its ground floor.
Rescuers used scanning equipment to create 3D images of the wreckage to try to locate someone alive, local television images showed.
