DFA: 2 Filipinos killed in Beirut building collapse

Lebanese Red Cross members, carry a dead body after they remove it from beneath rubble of a collapsed building in Beirut, Lebanon, on Monday. Lebanese security officials say the death toll from the collapse of a five-story residential building in Beirut has risen to 18, most of them foreigners. AP

Two Filipinos were killed, one was injured while one remained missing in the collapse of an apartment building in Beirut, Lebanon, Sunday night, according to the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA).

“It was confirmed by our Philippine embassy there that among those who perished were two Filipinos,” said DFA spokesperson Raul Hernandez in a radio interview. No names were released, however.

Agence France-Presse reported that at least 26 people were killed when the old six-story building in Beirut’s eastern Ashrafiyeh district came crashing down.

“As of now, 26 bodies have been recovered and we believe there are more buried under the building,” Red Cross official Georges Kettaneh told AFP.

A dozen people were injured, none of them seriously, he added.

Civil defense chief Gen. Raymond Khattar told AFP the bodies recovered by rescuers who worked through Sunday night and Monday included seven Lebanese, six Sudanese, two Filipinos and two Egyptians.

Among the dead was a 15-year-old Lebanese girl, and those hurt included her grandmother as well as a 73-year-old Lebanese man, at least two Sudanese, an Egyptian and a Filipino woman.

In Amman, the foreign ministry spokesperson said three Jordanians were killed—a husband and wife and their grandson.

The building housed some 50 people, many of them laborers from Sudan and Egypt, Khattar said. He added that at least eight people were known to have escaped as the building was coming down.

A Syrian laborer at a nearby building site said debris started falling in the early evening before the entire apartment building came crashing down.

“We saw small pieces of stone falling but no one paid any attention at the start,” he told AFP. “Then large chunks started falling and people began screaming for everyone to get out. Within minutes, the building was on the ground.”

One resident who escaped with her mother said the building was extremely rundown and the owner had warned tenants not to remain there shortly before it collapsed. Tina G. Santos, AFP

Originally posted: 12:56 pm | Tuesday, January 17th, 2012