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“We did not find anyone at the place where he detected the machine,” said a civil defense volunteer Qasem Khater.
However, another volunteer, Mansour Al Asmat, said rescuers had detected a heartbeat signal elsewhere under the rubble.
“The more obstacles we remove, the more approach signal the machine signal will give [of] the exact area, “he said.
Civil defense volunteers remain at the scene, but warned that the search operation must end.
Asmat said rescuers were 100% certain there was a body under the rubble, but that the person “may not necessarily” be alive.
“The dog is smelling a safe body,” he told CNN on Friday. “We depend on the machine and the dog.” Asmat added that there was a small chance that the machine could detect something else, like a clock, rather than a heartbeat.
“Maybe there is nothing, but as long as the trained dog is marking a human body and the machine gives us a heartbeat, we will continue to search,” he said. “The combination of these two results means that there is something.”
Search teams flocked to the site, a neighborhood near the epicenter of last month’s blast, on Thursday after rescue teams detected movement deep in the rubble.
Rescuers worked under floodlights in humid summer conditions to remove parts of a wall with a crane as a crowd waited, eager for updates.
On Friday morning local time, thermal imaging showed body heat in the debris, while rescuers also detected eight breaths a minute through the debris, Eddy Bitar, co-founder of Live Love Beirut, an NGO that helps with rescue efforts.
Yesterday the teams heard 18 breaths per minute.
Rescuers asked a crowd of about 200 onlookers to be quiet so their team could better detect the breathing or heartbeat of a possible survivor. Members of the crowd turned off their phones while waiting for news.
The search was triggered by a rescue dog that passed through the destroyed building with a Chilean rescue team on Thursday and indicated signs of life, said Eddy Bitar, a worker for a local non-governmental organization.
Thermal images later showed two bodies: a small body curled up next to a larger body. A listening device also recorded a respiratory cycle of 18 per minute, Bitar said.
“There is a small chance that the person is still alive,” Bitar said.
Rescue teams dug tunnels through thick concrete rubble to reach the site of the possible survivor. Francisco Lermanda, a worker for the Chilean search and rescue NGO Topos Chile, was wary of the prospect of finding someone alive after so many days under the rubble. But he did not rule it out.
One person survived 28 days under the rubble in Haiti, he added.
Tension on site
Thursday’s search was temporarily suspended due to concerns that a wall could collapse and endanger the lives of the rescue team, said Beirut fire officer Lt. Michel El-Mur. After the search was suspended Thursday night local time, a protest of about 100 people broke out outside the site.
“That breath is our last breath. It is our last hope. Everyone should be ashamed,” protester Melissa Atallah shouted. A woman was heard saying, “We’ve been here for a month, can’t you stay up one night?”
The scores reached the site of the rescue effort after the Chilean team had left, demanding an immediate resumption of the operation. One woman said she called for a tow truck, while other protesters climbed through the rubble offering to search for the body themselves.
Tension continued to build until soldiers told protesters that the team and their gear would return to the site imminently.
Several people CNN spoke to said that a strong putrid odor emanated from the destroyed building after the explosion. One woman said she repeatedly alerted authorities and urged them to search the site.
“Two weeks ago we were protesting here and we smelled what felt like ‘old blood,'” Reine Abbas said. “If they had verified it back then, then the body would probably be alive today.”
“But this is Lebanon.”
Huge explosion
“There is no time for talking, promises and wishes. It is a time for action,” Adib said in a short acceptance speech.
