A building in Tripoli’s Qobbeih neighborhood evacuated after cracks in its foundations raises fears of an imminent collapse.

Panic persists in Tripoli over cracked, collapse-prone buildings following the evacuation of two more buildings while a third is inspected in Qalamoun, according to our correspondent. Residents were evacuated from these buildings, following several collapses since the start of winter — mainly in the disadvantaged Qobbeih neighborhood — which resulted in two deaths over the past weekend.

On Thursday night, the “Arbis” and “al-Osmani” buildings were evacuated by the municipal police. One family, unable to find alternative housing, returned to the second building, prompting a new intervention by municipal forces, who evacuated the building again and blocked all access to protect residents.

In Qalamoun, the municipal crisis management committee inspected another building. The assessment revealed major cracks in the load-bearing beams, sagging and deformation of the floor slab, sewage infiltration causing corrosion of metal reinforcements, longitudinal wall cracks, and partial collapses of the roof attached to the building. The committee recommended immediate intervention to reinforce the structure.

Several warnings had already been issued about the risk of building collapses in Tripoli, Lebanon’s poorest city, amid severely deteriorated infrastructure and a lack of funding. According to the latest 2024 municipal census, around 105 still-inhabited buildings are at immediate risk of collapse and require evacuation. Andira Zouhairi, head of the Lebanese Building League, estimates that nearly 4,000 buildings in Tripoli are at risk.

On Thursday, the Tripoli municipality activated an emergency plan, including the establishment of a 24-hour operations center to handle complaints about cracked buildings, updating the database of 103 identified at-risk buildings, and classifying structures according to danger level. Identified plots in different municipalities will also be used to install prefabricated homes provided by the High Relief Committee to ensure temporary housing in the event of rapid evacuations.