One person rescued, five dead, at least 10 still missing in Jordan building collapse
Five bodies have been pulled from rubble of residential structure in capital Amman’s central Jabal al-Weibdeh district; prime minister orders probe
Jordanian teams on Wednesday rescued one person alive and worked to save other survivors of a building collapse in the capital Amman, officials said.
State media said at least five people were killed and at least 10 others remain missing. Five bodies were recovered the day before.
The four-story structure collapsed on Tuesday for reasons that remain unclear. The country’s prime minister has ordered an investigation.
Anxious relatives waited at the disaster site in downtown Amman, where emergency services were racing against the clock to dig any survivors from the debris of the residential building.
“According to our information, 10 people are still under the rubble of the collapsed building, and some of them are still alive,” government spokesman Faisal Shboul told the Al-Mamlaka state television channel.
“Search operations are continuing at the site. The terrain is rough, the buildings are close to each other and the corridors are narrow, which makes the search difficult.”
According to an eyewitness who asked not to be identified, rescue workers, some toiling by hand, had been able to communicate with at least three trapped people.
The head of the civil defense service, Hatem Jaber, said Wednesday that “more than 300 civil defense personnel have taken part in the search for those trapped under the rubble.”
Rescue teams “will not rest” until all have been accounted for, he said.
Fourteen people were reported injured in the collapse.
The site was cordoned off Wednesday morning and police stopped local residents from approaching it to avoid hampering the search operation, an AFP correspondent said.
The disaster site is in the capital’s central Jabal al-Weibdeh district, one of Amman’s oldest neighborhoods, known for its vibrant cultural life and home to a large number of expatriates.
Prime Minister Bisher al-Khasawneh and several government ministers inspected the site Tuesday.
Jordan’s Deputy Prime Minister Tawfiq Kreishan told state television that “among the reasons for the collapse of the building is that it is old and dilapidated.”
A judicial source told AFP that “the public prosecutor’s office had opened an investigation into the collapse of the building.”
