Karbala: Iraqi rescue workers were desperately searching for survivors trapped under the rubble after a landslide hit a Shiite temple on Sunday, killing at least four people. Civil defense official Abdelrahman Jaudat “We have found four bodies, including a woman,” he told AFP. Civil Defense spokesman Nawas Sabha Shaker reported that between six and eight pilgrims were trapped under the rubble of a shrine known as Qattarat al-Imam Ali.
Three children were rescued after Saturday’s disaster and are in “good condition” and are being monitored at the hospital, emergency services said. Rescue teams working overnight were able to provide oxygen, food and water to some trapped under the rubble, state news agency INA said.
Iraqi President Barham Saleh took to Twitter to call on “heroic” rescue workers to “mobilize all efforts to save those trapped”. Emergency responders have previously said they are communicating verbally with victims “to reassure them”. We are working hard with the utmost precision to reach people.” “Any mistake can lead to further collapse.”
One man at the scene, Bassem Khazali, said his nephew was among those buried. “I’m worried that all our efforts will be in vain. I want to know what happened and why,” Hazari told AFP. “Dunes and rocks collapsed on top of the shrine,” Shaker told AFP, blaming the humidity for saturating the earth.
A landslide on Saturday afternoon hit a shrine in a natural depression about 25 kilometers west of the Shia holy city of Karbala. The Civil Defense Corps told his INA that rocks and sand had started to slide because “the earthen embankment adjacent to the shrine had become saturated.” “This caused about 30% of the building’s 100-square-meter area to collapse.” – AFP
