Possible sign of life brings hope of survivor under Lebanon rubble

The leader of the Chilean rescuers, center, gives his team direction in where to start searching the site of a collapsed building after getting signals there may be a survivor under the rubble, in Beirut, Lebanon, early Friday, Sept. 4, 2020. AP-Yonhap

Chilean rescue workers said on Thursday they had detected a sign of life from under the rubble of a collapsed building in a Beirut district, raising hopes that there might be a survivor even a month after the massive blast that rocked the city's port, officials and local media said.

The Chilean rescue team came to Lebanon to help following the explosion that killed at least 190 people and wounded 6,000 others on August 4.

Beirut city governor Marwan Abboud told dpa "all what we heard from the Chilean team was that there might be a survivor and that we hope with all our hearts there will be one."

"The Chilean rescue teams are working on the scene and they have their own equipment," Abboud said.

As night fell lights were brought to the area and Lebanese firefighters and civil defence were also at the scene helping the Chilean team.

Rescue team members search through buildings damaged due to the massive explosion at Beirut's port area, in Gemmayze, Lebanon September 4, 2020. REUTERS-Yonhap

George Kettneh, secretary general of the Lebanese Red Cross, told dpa that some of his teams were sent with their equipment to the scene as well.

Earlier the Lebanese army said they found more than 4 tons of highly explosive ammonium nitrate - the same substance that was behind the blast last month - near the entrance of the port, the state-run National News agency (NNA) said.

An army statement said that upon the request of the Beirut port customs department, army engineers inspected four containers near the port entrance number 9.

"It was found that they contain an amount of ammonium nitrate, weighing about 4 tons and 350 kilograms," it said.

It added that units from the army engineering team "were dealing with it," without giving further details. (DPA)

Site Map E-paper Subscribe Register LogIn
Site Map E-paper Subscribe Register LogIn