Five die as flats fold in Beirut

Press, 20 May 1987, Page 10

Five die as flats fold in Beirut

NZPA-Reuter Beirut A block of flats collapsed in Muslim west Beirut yesterday, killing five people and leaving six others still unaccounted for, the police said.

They said a pregnant woman was one of the victims dragged from the rubble by scores of rescue teams working feverishly to find survivors. The Shaaban building collapsed at dawn (local time) in what residents said was a roll of thunder and a huge cloud of choking dust Initially, the police attributed the incident to structural damage during Israel’s. invasion of Lebanon in 1982. Civil Defence officials later told Reuters that activity at a nearby building site had undermined the fourstorey Shaaban. Ambulances sped to the Abu Shaker suburb while Syrian and Lebanese troops cordoned the area to prevent crowds from hampering rescue work. Most Shaaban residents were asleep when their homes fell apart, onlookers said. One woman, sobbing with grief, carried the picture of her niece, still missing hours after the building had collapsed. “Dear God,” she cried. “This is is my niece, my only relative left on this Earth.” Men shouted Allah-o-Akbar (God is Great) as rescuers pulled bodies, many of them still clad in pyjamas or nightgowns, from the pile.