Daily US Times: Hopes are fading in Lebanon’s capital Beirut that anyone will be found beneath the rubble of a building destroyed in last month’s explosion, following two days of search efforts.
After sensor equipment detected possible signs of life, rescue workers began looking through the debris.
But Chilean rescuers ended a second day of searching without finding anyone alive.
On Friday, Beirut held a minute’s silence to mark a month since the explosion, which killed almost 200 and thousands more were injured by the blast, which happened when 2,750 tonnes of ammonium nitrate detonated.
There has been outrage in Lebanon that so much hazardous material was stored unsafely in a warehouse in the city’s port, close to many residential areas.
The Lebanese govt. was forced to resign after the blast and angry protesters clashed with police in the city for several nights. Seven people are still missing after one month of the blast, according to Lebanese officials.
Search efforts got underway after a Chilean rescue said it had detected possible signs of life under a destroyed building located between the residential districts of Mar Mikhael and Gemmayze.
On Wednesday night, the rescuers were walking through the area when their sniffer dog – trained to find bodies – gave a sign that there was a person inside. When they returned on the next day, the dog went to the same place and gave the same sign. Specialist sensor equipment then detected a pulsing signal in the area.
Francisco Lermanda, The head of the Chilean rescue team, told reporters on Friday that slow breathing had been detected under the rubble at a depth of 3m (9.8ft).
He said rescuers dug three tunnels to try to reach the spot where the pulse was detected adding that it was too soon to know if anyone was “alive or dead” beneath the debris.
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