Damage caused by collapse of residential building in Mansourieh, Oct. 16, 2023. (Credit: Mohammad Yassine)
At least seven people are still under the rubble of a residential building that collapsed mid-afternoon in Mansourieh on Monday, sources told L'Orient-Le Jour.
Caretaker Minister of Interior and Municipalities Bassam Malawi visited the site, his press office told our newspaper. Civil Defense authorities were alerted shortly before 2 p.m., according to a press release issued later that evening.
According to our local reporter Suzanne Baaklini, who went to the scene and spoke to neighbors in the area, several people were still trapped under the rubble in the early evening when a thud was heard in the building structure. Emergency services on the scene immediately evacuated the area, fearing that the building would collapse even further and that one of the neighboring buildings, which shares the same parking lot, would also collapse. According to the Civil Defense statement, the final list of potential victims has not yet been published.
'Poorly executed' work
Rescuers were then able to extract just one person from beneath the rubble, while Civil Defense Director Raymond Khattar told L'Orient-Le Jour that "three people have already been rescued so far and are in stable condition." Rescue workers have also recovered a cat from the upper floors. The people trapped under rubble were surprised by the collapse of the building as they tried to escape. At around 7 p.m., only rescue workers from the three teams dispatched to the scene were still on site.
A building in Mansourieh, Lebanom collapsed and the civil defense is searching for survivors under the rubble. pic.twitter.com/I5qBrWK03g
— Michael Maalouf ?️ (@michaelmalouf_) October 16, 2023
Nicole, a woman in her twenties, got out of the building with her mother just in time. She recounted how the building's foundations suddenly deteriorated between Sunday and Monday, citing the appearance of "large cracks" in two concrete posts in the parking lot. These same posts had been repaired only three months ago. According to Elias Hankache, Kataeb MP for Metn, the municipality had warned the building's residents of its "fragility".
Nada Baroud, another resident who was not home when the building collapsed, said that the municipality had issued "no warning."
In this 35-year-old building, the subsidence occurred on two floors that make up the basement. When asked about the potential causes of the collapse, Khattar said that "work had been carried out on the building beforehand", but was unable to say whether it was sufficient to consolidate the foundations. Cracks had appeared on the same two posts in the parking lot during the summer.
According to President of the Order of Engineers and Architects Aref Yassine, who was also on-site, the renovation work was "poorly executed" and the consolidation should have been carried out in a "more professional" manner.
"The municipality and the Ministry of Interior will carry out the necessary investigations," said Khattar.
President of the Mansourieh municipality could not be reached when contacted by L'Orient-Le Jour.
