At least 24 Israelis were killed and about 370 were injured Thursday night, when a wedding hall in the Talpiot industrial zone in Jerusalem collapsed as some 700 people were attending a wedding celebration there, sending many of them plummeting several storeys to the ground, said reports.
Dozens of people were said to be still trapped in the ruins of the building.
At 10:43 p.m. (Israel local time), the floor of the third storey of the Versailles Hall suddenly collapsed, apparently bringing down the ceilings of the storeys below.
Police and army rescue teams were searching for people trapped in the ruins of the building.
According to initial police assessments, the rescue operation could take three days, said Haaretz newspaper.
The collapse was described as Israel's worst building disaster ever.
At a Friday afternoon press conference held next to the site of the incident as the noise of rescue workers could be heard in the background, Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon called it "a national tragedy" and said he was considering appointing a commission to investigate the incident.
"This event is horrifying, among the hardest that ever happened in Israel," he said, cited by the paper.
"I would define it as a national tragedy and all of us are united in the terrible pain for the families and wish to the injured a speedy recovery."
The prime minister also said that he would convene a special government meeting Tuesday morning in order to consider the possibility of forming a formal committee to investigate the tragedy.
"Its a hard day, a day of pain, and we need to all stand together and make every effort to prevent such tragedies from happening in the future."
Police quickly ruled out the possibility of a terrorist attack, saying the building almost certainly collapsed as a result of structural faults. "We are talking about a major disaster," said Jerusalem police chief Miki Levi.
"Dozens are trapped under the ruins... it appears to have been caused by a serious engineering failure."
Police Commissioner Shlomo Aharonishki later confirmed that an "engineering fault" had almost certainly been the reason for the crumbling of the building.
At a press conference Friday morning, Mayor of Jerusalem Ehud Olmert said that initial investigations seemed to show that there were grave defects in the construction and maintenance of the building. He noted that the municipality had not been aware of these defects.
Meanwhile, the Palestinian Authority released a statement Friday expressing its grief and sending condolences to the families of those who lost their lives in the collapse, said Haaretz.
"The Palestinian leadership expresses its deep condolences to the state and the Israeli people for the victims of wedding hall," the statement said, cited by the paper.
The statement also offered to help the rescue teams who continued their search through the rubble Friday for survivors and for more bodies.
"The leadership has given immediate instruction to the department of civil defense to offer help to their Israeli counterparts to assist in rescue operations," the statement added – Albawaba.com
© 2001 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)
