Chilean rescue teams, along with Lebanese civil defence volunteers, resumed Friday their search for a possible life under rubble in Beirut, raising hopes that there might be a survivor even a month after a massive blast rocked the city’s port.
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The search is being done amid silence from the crowd, and journalists at the scene were asked by the Chilean team to observe silence and switch off their phones, for them to be able to use their scanning equipment.
The Lebanese MTV television said the team detected a sign of life on Friday, but it was weaker than the previous day.
On Thursday a Chilean rescue team who came to Lebanon after the Beirut port blast that killed at least 190 people and wounded 6,000 on Aug. 4, detected a sign of life from under the rubble of a collapsed building in Gemmayze neighbourhood.
The team with the help of the Lebanese civil defence were manually removing rubble with their hands as they were afraid to use any equipment which would cause a total collapse of the already destroyed building.
Shortly after midnight, the fire department said that all work at the site had stopped due to the danger to the emergency teams.
The announcement prompted anger from a crowd that had gathered at the scene.
“We are ready to bring the cranes, but please continue searching,’’ a woman screamed.
“I don’t know how long it will take,’’ Francisco Lermanda of the Chilean “Topos” rescue team, whose name translates as “moles”, told CNN Espanyol overnight.