Khaberni - The death toll from the collapse of a residential building on its inhabitants in the city of Tripoli in northern Lebanon on Sunday has risen to 14 people, in a final toll announced by emergency services on Monday as search operations ended, in an incident that is the second of its kind within two weeks.
An old building, consisting of two parts each containing six apartments, collapsed on Sunday afternoon while 22 of its residents were inside, in the Bab al-Tabbaneh district, which is one of the poorest in Tripoli, the country's second largest city and one of the poorest cities on the eastern Mediterranean coast.
The General Director of Civil Defense, Imad Kharish, announced to reporters in front of the building: "The search and rescue operations have preliminarily ended," noting that eight residents were "rescued alive while unfortunately 14 victims died."
The authorities worked on Sunday to evacuate the adjacent buildings for fear of their collapse, while teams from the civil defense and rescue agencies worked throughout the night searching for victims, according to a photographer for AFP.
The mayor of Tripoli, Abdul Hamid Karimeh, declared the city "a disaster" on Sunday, due to the large number of buildings prone to collapse, threatening the lives of thousands of residents due to years of neglect.
He called on the Lebanese government to take responsibility, indicating that the issue "exceeds the capabilities of Tripoli's municipality."
The tragedy followed another building collapse in the city at the end of last month, which resulted in the death of two people.
The authorities then announced that "105 buildings, according to a survey by Tripoli's municipality, need immediate warnings to be issued to their inhabitants" for evacuation.
In Lebanon, many buildings are populated despite being dilapidated or at risk of collapsing. Many of these were built illegally, especially during the civil war (1975-1990), or had additional floors added without permits.
Building collapses have been recorded in Tripoli and other areas in the country, with authorities often lax in adhering to structural safety standards and in addressing violations, and unable to find radical solutions.
In 2024, Amnesty International urged the Lebanese authorities to conduct a comprehensive field survey "urgently to assess the safety of buildings across the country."
At that time, they specifically warned of the situation in Tripoli where "thousands of people live in unsafe buildings" following a devastating earthquake in Turkey and Syria in February 2023, which damaged several buildings in Lebanon.
