JERUSALEM: A PARTY HALL COLLAPSES DURING A WEDDING DANCE, KILLING AT LEAST 22 PEOPLE

Record ID: 216709

  • Title: JERUSALEM: A PARTY HALL COLLAPSES DURING A WEDDING DANCE, KILLING AT LEAST 22 PEOPLE
  • Date: 25th May 2001
  • Summary: JERUSALEM (MAY 25, 2001) (REUTERS) 1. PAN OF THE COLLAPSED BUILDING, RESCUE WORKDERS INSIDE THE RUBBLE, REMOVING DEBRIS 0.14 2. LV DAMAGED BUILDING 0.19 3. SV PULL OUT LV/SLV VARIOUS INTERIORS OF BUILDING/ WALLS TORN DOWN/ GAPING HOLE IN BRICKWORK/RESCUE WORKERS (2 SHOTS) 0.45 4. MCU (English) JERUSALEM MAYOR EHUD OLMERT SAYING "At
  • Embargoed: 9th June 2001 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: JERUSALEM
  • City:
  • Country: Israel
  • Reuters ID: LVA2LPXU4NCOK8HP0YUXV6CGNJXX
  • Story Text: Israeli rescuers with sniffer dogs searched on Friday
    for scores of people believed buried in the rubble of a
    Jerusalem party hall that collapsed during a wedding dance,
    killing at least 22 people.

    The army said 309 people were injured in the collapse late
    on Thursday and predicted a search for survivors would take
    four to five days.



    The collapse trapped scores of other who were at the
    party when disaster struck at 10:43 p.m. (1943 GMT) on
    Thursday (May 24).

    Aided by sniffer dogs trained to locate people buried
    under debris, a helmeted Israeli military unit, a veteran of
    earthquakes in Greece, Kenya and Turkey, had pulled out four
    survivors and five bodies some seven hours after disaster
    struck.

    Police and army officials at the scene said an engineering
    fault, and not an Arab attack, was responsible for the
    collapse late on Thursday at the 15-year-old Versailles hall
    in the Talpiot industrial park of Jerusalem.

    At the site of the collapse Jerusalem's mayor Ehud Olmert
    told reporters: "One thing that we have verified after
    examining the events and the circumstances by the army experts
    and the police experts and the local police department is that
    this was not an explosion, it was not an act of terror which
    caused this collapse."
    The disaster further darkened the national mood for
    Israelis battling an eight-month-old Palestinian uprising and
    enduring suicide attacks, the last of which killed five
    Israelis outside a shopping mall a week ago.

    Officials at a news conference declined to give specific
    numbers for the dead and trapped but rescue workers said at
    least 20 people were killed and from 70 to 100 remained
    unaccounted for. Rescue workers said 309 people were injured.

    They added that up to 655 people were at the party in a
    third-floor banquet hall of the four-storey building when its
    dance floor wobbled and collapsed, sending guests, tables and
    chairs plunging through the second floor to the ground.

    Ambulances streamed to the holy city from Tel Aviv, 60 km
    (35 miles) away, as appeals went out over radio and television
    for Israelis to donate blood.

    Daylight showed a gaping hole in the centre of the building gouged
    by the dance floor as it plunged to the ground. The site of the collapse was being reinforced by army experts to enable the search
    for survivors to carry on in safety.


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