February 9 (Reuters) – The death toll from a residential building collapse in the Lebanese city of Tripoli rose to 14 after a search and rescue operation ended, Lebanon’s state news agency quoted the head of civil defense as saying on Monday.
Imad Khreiss, director-general of civil protection, said rescue teams found 14 bodies and rescued eight people from the rubble of collapsed buildings in the northern city of Bab al-Tabbaneh neighborhood.
Officials said Sunday that two adjacent buildings had collapsed.
advertise
advertise
Tripoli City Council Chairman Abdul Hamid Karameh said he could not confirm how many people were still missing. Earlier, the head of the Lebanese Civil Defense and Rescue Department said that there were 22 residents in the two buildings.
Multiple aging residential buildings have collapsed in recent weeks in Tripoli, Lebanon’s second-largest city, highlighting deteriorating infrastructure and years of neglect, state media said, citing city officials.
(Reporting by Jana Choukeir; Editing by Kirsten Donovan and David Holmes)