Relief workers in Lebanon said Saturday evening they had found "
no sign of life
" in the ruins of a building in a stricken district of Beirut, dampening hopes of finding a survivor a month after the huge explosion in the port.
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A team of Chilean rescuers intervening in the Lebanese capital had detected heartbeats under the rubble of a building on Wednesday evening thanks to a sniffer dog and thermal scanners, giving rise to the hope of finding a survivor of the powerful explosion at the port which occurred on August 4.
It destroyed entire neighborhoods, killing at least 191 and injuring more than 6,500 people.
Seven people are still missing.
After three days spent moving a large amount of debris, mainly by hand, Francesco Lermanda, a Chilean specialist rescuer, said on Saturday evening that no sign of life was detectable in the rubble of the building.
“
Unfortunately, today we can say that we have no sign of life in the building,
” he told reporters.
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Two rescuers entered a passage on Saturday leading to the last air pocket where a victim could have been, but found no one there, he said.
However, work will continue to secure the area and ensure that no one is left inside, according to Francesco Lermanda.
In the afternoon, the engineer overseeing the operations, Riyadh al-Assad, explained that several layers of debris had been removed.
In vain.
"
We have reached the stairwell and there is nothing,
" he lamented.
“
The dog gave us hope but it also highlighted the failings of the whole system.
This building should have been cleared several weeks ago
”.
Lebanon does not have the equipment or the expertise to carry out such search and rescue operations.
Teams came from Chile, France and the United States to make up for this lack.
There was still debris to be removed from the stairs, but the operation seemed more complex than before.
The director of operations of Lebanese Civil Defense George Abou Moussa had estimated Saturday morning that "
the chances (were) very low
" of finding victims.
For his part, one of the Chilean rescuers, Walter Munoz, had told journalists that the hope of finding a survivor was "
2%
".
Beirut Governor Marwan Abboud told reporters on Thursday that there could be one or two bodies, and possibly even a survivor.
This announcement, a month after the apocalyptic explosion caused by several hundred tons of ammonium nitrate stored for years at the port without precautionary measures, had aroused renewed hope and moved part of public opinion, again traumatized and in shock.
"
This is our last pulse,
" Nasri Sayegh, visual artist and actor from Beirut, wrote on Facebook on Friday.