Hopes of miracle fade in Beirut
Rescue teams kept up their search for survivors in Beirut yesterday even as hopes raised by sensor readings of a pulse beneath the rubble of last month's blast began to fade.
The cataclysmic August 4 explosion in the port of Beirut killed at least 191 people, making it Lebanon's deadliest peacetime disaster. One month on, seven people are still listed as missing.
On Wednesday night, a sniffer dog deployed by Chilean rescuers detected a scent beneath a collapsed building in the heavily damaged Gemmayzeh neighbourhood adjacent to the port.
High-tech sensors confirmed an apparent heartbeat and, a full month after the August 4 blast, rescue teams took up the search.
But despite removing piles of masonry, they have yet to find the source of the sensor reading.
"Search operations have been going on since the day before yesterday but the chances are very low," the civil defence agency's operations director, George Abou Moussa, told AFP.
"So far, we have found nothing."
Lebanese officials had played down the chances of anyone surviving so long beneath the rubble.
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