A pulsing signal was on Thursday detected from under the rubble of a Beirut building that collapsed during the horrific port explosion in the Lebanese capital last month, raising hopes there might be a survivor still buried there.
The effort unfolded after a sniffer dog belonging to the Chilean search and rescue team first detected something as the team was going through Gemmayzeh Street — one of the hardest-hit in the Aug. 4 explosion — and rushed toward the rubble of a building.
The team then used audio detection equipment for signals or heartbeats, and detected what could be a pulse of 18 to 19 beats per minute.
Photo: AP
The origin of the signal was not immediately known, but it set off a frantic search and raised new hope.
It is unlikely that any survivors would be found a month after a blast caused by a fire igniting 2750 tonnes of ammonium nitrate in a warehouse at the Port of Beirut.
The explosion killed 191 people and injured 6,000 others, and is considered to be one of the biggest non-nuclear explosions ever recorded.
Thousands of homes were damaged.
“Ninety-nine percent there isn’t anything, but even if there is less than 1 percent hope, we should keep on looking,” civil defense worker Youssef Malah said, adding that he and his men would continue working throughout the night.
A Chilean volunteer said that their equipment identifies breathing and heartbeat from humans, not animals, and it detected a sign of a human.
The worker, who identified himself as Francesco Lermonda, said that it is rare, but not unheard of, for someone to survive under rubble for a month.
As night fell, rescue workers set up light projectors to work through the darkness.
The Lebanese Red Cross set up a tent nearby the search area.
Every now and then, the Chilean team asked people on the streets, including a crowd of journalists watching the operation, to turn off their mobiles and stay quiet for five minutes to avoid interfering with the sounds being detected by their instruments.
Two days after the explosion, a French rescue team and Lebanese civil defense volunteers had looked into the rubble of the same building, where the ground floor used to be a bar.
At the time, they had no reason to believe there were any bodies or survivors left at the site.
In another chilling reminder of the horrific explosion a month ago, the Lebanese military on Thursday said that it discovered more than 3.5 tonnes of ammonium nitrate near the port complex.
REBUILDING: A researcher said that it might seem counterintuitive to start talking about reconstruction amid the war with Russia, but it is ‘actually an urgent priority’ Italy is hosting the fourth annual conference on rebuilding Ukraine even as Russia escalates its war, inviting political and business leaders to Rome to promote public-private partnerships on defense, mining, energy and other projects as uncertainty grows about the US’ commitment to Kyiv’s defense. Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy were opening the meeting yesterday, which gets under way as Russia accelerated its aerial and ground attacks against Ukraine with another night of pounding missile and drone attacks on Kyiv. Italian organizers said that 100 official delegations were attending, as were 40 international organizations and development banks. There are
TARIFF ACTION: The US embassy said that the ‘political persecution’ against former Brazilian president Jair Bolsonaro disrespects the democratic traditions of the nation The US and Brazil on Wednesday escalated their row over US President Donald Trump’s support for former Brazilian president Jair Bolsonaro, with Washington slapping a 50 percent tariff on one of its main steel suppliers. Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva threatened to reciprocate. Trump has criticized the prosecution of Bolsonaro, who is on trial for allegedly plotting to cling on to power after losing 2022 elections to Lula. Brasilia on Wednesday summoned Washington’s top envoy to the country to explain an embassy statement describing Bolsonaro as a victim of “political persecution” — echoing Trump’s description of the treatment of Bolsonaro as
The tale of a middle-aged Chinese man, or “uncle,” who disguised himself as a woman to secretly film and share videos of his hookups with more than 1,000 men shook China’s social media, spurring fears for public health, privacy and marital fidelity. The hashtag “red uncle” was the top trending item on China’s popular microblog Sina Weibo yesterday, drawing at least 200 million views as users expressed incredulity and shock. The online posts told of how the man in the eastern city of Nanjing had lured 1,691 heterosexual men into sexual encounters at his home that he then recorded and distributed online. The
Hundreds of protesters marched through the Mexican capital on Friday denouncing gentrification caused by foreigners, with some vandalizing businesses and shouting “gringos out!” The demonstration in the capital’s central area turned violent when hooded individuals smashed windows, damaged restaurant furniture and looted a clothing store. Mexico City Government Secretary Cesar Cravioto said 15 businesses and public facilities were damaged in what he called “xenophobic expressions” similar to what Mexican migrants have suffered in other countries. “We are a city of open arms... there are always ways to negotiate, to sit at the table,” Cravioto told Milenio television. Neighborhoods like Roma-Condesa
RSS