Search for Survivors Called off, 20,000 Buildings Under Threat of Collapse

Rescuers have recovered 27 bodies from the rubble of a collapsed building in Ashrafiyeh amid fears that 20,000 structures could face a similar fate if the government doesn’t take quick action.

The rescue teams called off the search for survivors on Monday night after only finding bodies throughout the day. The dead included 11 Lebanese and 16 foreigners, Interior Minister Marwan Charbel told Voice of Lebanon radio station on Tuesday.

Eleven people, who were injured in the collapse of the building in the Fassouh neighborhood of Ashrafiyeh on Sunday evening, were all rescued in the first hours of the accident.

The head of parliament’s public works committee, MP Mohammed Qabbani, warned in remarks to An Nahar daily that “20,000 such buildings could face a fate similar to that of Fassouh.”

The issue has opened a wide door of discussion on the role of authorities in inspecting old buildings, deciding their fate and avoiding similar disasters.

Such an incident has been preceded by two similar cases in Byaqout and Mezher, Qabbani said.

During a session it held at Baabda palace on Monday, the cabinet agreed to provide LL30 million ($20,000) to every victim in compensation and tasked the Higher Relief Council with providing them alternative housing to the survivors and the families of nearby buildings who were evacuated on Sunday night upon the order of security forces.

Ashrafiyeh lawmakers called for a three-hour closure at noon Wednesday during the funeral of 15-year-old Anne Marie Abdel Karim at the Sayydeh church.

"I was asleep, I woke up and felt everything shaking and then something fell on me and I started screaming," said Antonella, Anne Marie's twin sister. She spoke to reporters from her hospital bed on Monday, not knowing her sister had died.

"Thank God it was just this, and nothing more," she said.