H: $40
L: $29
H: $40
L: $28
H: $36
L: $27
H: $38
L: $30
H: 38
L: $29
H: $42
L: $28
The Chilean rescue team said there was no one alive in the construction who searched with Lebanese volunteers for 3 days.
A Chilean rescue team said Saturday night that no one was living in a collapsed building in Beirut after a three-day search that put Lebanon to its feet.
The much-needed smart news did not arrive some 32 days after the fatal explosion that killed another 200 people and injured 6,500.
“There is no sign of life,” said Francisco Lermanta, responsible for the voluntary rescue of Topos Chile.
Mr. Lermanta’s rescuers had combed 95% of the building.
He said the life symptoms detected during the more than two days were the breath of the other rescuers who were already in the building.
Efforts will now be made to clear the debris and find the remains.
“We will continue with the protocols so that we can reject the presence of a frame in the building,” Mr. Lermanta.
“We checked 95% of the construction and the missing component is the sidewalk, which is full of debris.
“We never prevent with even 1% hope. We never prevent until the paintings are finished.”
Flash, the rescue dog of Topos Chile, detected life symptoms Wednesday night in the collapsed construction in Gemmayze district.
The border collie, slightly wounded on Saturday morning in the search, has without delay become a national hero in Lebanon.
Hopes for a miracle have increased more than a month after 2,750 ammonium nitrate exploded in Beirut harbor.
“We are attached to this little ray of hope. We all have to think we’re in great days,” Oscar-nominated director Nadine Labaki told the National on Friday.
Like dozens of volunteers, hounds and spectators, Labaki had been there since Thursday.
A few months before the explosion, Lebanon suffered from the worst economic crisis in its history, aggravated by the coronavirus pandemic.
Half of the population lives below the poverty line, banks have been limited to liquidity, and the local currency has lost about 80% of its price on the black market.
A month later, Lebanon is reeling from the explosion in Beirut
Hope fades in Beirut as search for survivors of explosion continues
The August explosion hit some of the busiest neighborhoods and left 300,000 people homeless.
The Chilean rescue team conducted tests on the collapsed construction and said they believed that a small user, in all likelihood a child, was still alive, while a larger user had died.
But hopes began to fade on Saturday after 3 days of searching and no symptoms of life.
In the afternoon, two female members of the team went into a tunnel to verify the last position where the survivors might have been, but there was no one inside, Mr. Mr. Lermanta.
While they were working, the army pushed back the other people at the site, fearing that the collapsed construction would collapse.
Mr. Lermanta rejected rumors that the Lebanese army had obstructed the paintings of the Chilean team, which he supported through the Lebanese Civil Defense and the local charity Live Love Lebanon.
“We cooperate with institutions, NGOs and companies,” he said.
Lieutenant Michel El Murr of the Beirut Fire Department told the National that members of his team, who were also running in the building, had been invited through the Chilean team to leave on Friday afternoon because they did agree on how to conduct the search.
Activist Melissa Fathallah, who helped coordinate rescue efforts, told the National that she did not feel defeated despite bad news.
“If anyone’s alive, it’s great. If we locate a body, at least we can bury it,” Fathallah said.”And otherwise the construction is harmful anyway, and we can do anything about it.