JERUSALEM: RESCUERS SEARCH FOR PEOPLE BELIEVE TO BE BURIED IN RUBBLE OF PARTY HALL THAT COLLAPSED DURING WEDDING DANCE

Record ID: 647691

  • Title: JERUSALEM: RESCUERS SEARCH FOR PEOPLE BELIEVE TO BE BURIED IN RUBBLE OF PARTY HALL THAT COLLAPSED DURING WEDDING DANCE
  • Date: 25th May 2001
  • Summary: (W5) JERUSALEM (MAY 25, 2001) (REUTERS) 1. LV OF THE COLLAPSED BUILDING 0.06 2. SLV SNIFFER DOG AT SITE; SNIFFER DOGS AT WORK TO FIND BODIES (2 SHOTS) 0.31 3. SV BODIES IN BODY BAGS BEING CARRIED OUT OF RUBBLE ON STRETCHERS (2 SHOTS) 1.02 4. TILT FROM TOP TO BOTTOM OF THE BUILDING THAT COLLAPSED; MIDSHOT OF RESCUE WORKER DIGGING IN THE RUBBLE; SLV/SV RESCUE WORKERS HANDING BUCKETS OF RUBBLE TO ONE ANOTHER (5 SHOTS) 1.38 5. TV BODY IN BLACK BODYBAG BEING CARRIED OUT OF THE RUBBLE 2.01 6. SV RESCUE WORKERS SURVEYING DAMAGE TO SITE (2 SHOTS) 2.14 7. TV/SLV BODIES BEING CARRIED (2 SHOTS) 2.36 8. CU OF WHAT WAS ONE OF THE FLOORS OF THE BUILDING BEFORE THE COLLAPSE 2.39 9. MCU (English) RESCUE WORKER, OLIVIER RAFOWICZ, SAYING "The people doing the rescue from the Israeli rescue units were trying to find other people alive and unfortunately after two hours we found eight bodies and we are still continuing to find other bodies. Many people are still missing but we do not know the exact number of people missing, it could be some ten, twenty, thirty but things are not clear right now." 3.07 10. TV OF AMBULANCE CREWS TAKING AWAY BODIES (2 SHOTS) 3.17 11. SV/MCU MAN IN ORTHODOX JEWISH DRESS LOOKING AT SITE OF COLLAPSE THROUGH BINOCULARS (2 SHOTS) 3.24 12. MCU (English) UNIDENTIFIED MAN AT SITE SAYING "I'm very concerned about this, what happened, it's terrifying, the builder should go to jail and the manager who let the people into this building. There must be punishment for this because innocent people died. I cannot say any more." 3.41 (W5) JERUSALEM (MAY 25, 2001) (REUTERS) 13. LV HOSPITAL 3.44 14. SV MOTHER OF GROOM ALIZA SROR IN BED IN HOSPITAL 3.48 15. MCU (English) MOTHER OF GROOM ALIZA SROR SURVIVOR IN BED IN HOSPITAL SAYING "It broke three floors down one, two or and three. I feel very, very bad. It was about half an hour until they (the rescuers) come to save us." 4.20 16. CU OF SALINE DRIP 4.24 17. MCU (English) MOTHER OF GROOM ALIZA SROR SURVIVOR IN BED IN HOSPITAL, AFTER BEING ASKED IF SHE THOUGHT THE CATASTROPHE HAD BEEN CAUSED BY A BOMB, SAYING "No, no I didn't hear anything, Only the floor opened and we fell down." 4.35 18. SV DOCTOR WALKING DOWN CORRIDOR OF HOSPITAL 4.44 Initials Script is copyright Reuters Limited. All rights reserved
  • Embargoed: 9th June 2001 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: JERUSALEM
  • City:
  • Country: Israel
  • Reuters ID: LVA8U9IOJILC3WH3S7JPLMU17DTB
  • Story Text: Israeli rescuers with sniffer dogs searched for scores
    of people believed to be buried in the rubble of a Jerusalem
    party hall that collapsed during a wedding dance.

    At least 24 have died in the accident.

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

    The collapsed building trapped scores of others 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 pulled out four
    survivors and five bodies some seven hours after disaster struck.

    The veteran force worked on earthquake rescue missions in
    Greece, Kenya and Turkey.

    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.

    The disaster further darkened the national mood for
    Israelis battling an eight-month-old Palestinian uprising and
    enduring suicide bomb 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 70 to 100 remain unaccounted for.

    Rescue workers said 309 people were injured.

    At the scene Olivier Rafowicz said that the rescue work
    was continuing: "The people doing the rescue from the Israeli
    rescue units were trying to find other people alive and
    unfortunately after two hours we found eight bodies and we are
    still continuing to find other bodies. Many people are still
    missing but we do not know the exact number of people missing,
    it could be some 10, 20 , 30 but things are not clear right now."
    They added that up to 655 people were at the party in a
    third-floor banquet hall of the four-story building when its
    dance floor wobbled and collapsed, sending guests, tables and
    chairs plunging through the second floor to the ground.

    "I'm very concerned about this, what happened - it's
    terrifying. The builder should go to jail and the manager who
    let the people into this building. There must be punishment
    for this because innocent people died. I cannot say any more,"
    said a man who had come to look at the site of the disaster.

    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.

    From her hospital bed the mother of the groom Aliza Sror told
    reporters what happened: "It broke three floors down, one, two
    or and three. I feel very, very bad. It was about half an hour
    until they (the rescuers) come to save us," she said.

    She added that it never crossed her mind that the
    disaster had been a terrorist act because she never heard any
    noise before the floor caved in.

    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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