BEIRUT: Hopes were dashed as rescue workers digging through the rubble of a Beirut building for the third day on Saturday said there was no longer hope of finding someone alive more than a month after a massive explosion at Beirut port.
About 50 rescue workers and volunteers, including a specialist team from Chile, had worked for three days to locate anyone after sensors on Thursday detected signs of breathing and heat.
“Technically speaking, there are no signs of life,” Francisco Lermanda, the head of volunteer rescue group Topos Chile, said in a news conference on Saturday evening, adding that rescuers had combed 95 per cent of the building.
The signs of life detected in the past two days, Lermanda said, were breaths of fellow rescuers already inside the building picked up by their sensitive equipment. He said efforts would now focus on clearing the rubble and finding remains.
“We never stop with even 1 per cent of hope,” Lermanda said, of finding a body. “We never stop until the job is done.”
Hardest hit area
Rescue efforts dominated local and social media, as the Lebanese were transfixed, desperate for a miracle. The ruined building where the search was continuing lies between the residential districts of Gemmayze and Mar Mikhael, among the hardest hit areas by the blast and home to many old buildings that crumbled as the shockwave ripped through.
Workers used shovels and their hands to dig, while mechanical diggers and a crane lifted heavy debris. Scanning equipment was also used to create 3D images of the wrecked building.