KARBALA, Iraq — Iraqi rescue workers Sunday
were desperately searching for survivors trapped under rubble after a landslide
hit a
Shiite Muslim shrine, killing at least four people.
اضافة اعلان
“We have found four bodies, including of a woman” at
the site near Karbala, central Iraq, civil defense official Abdelrahman Jawdat
told AFP.
Between six and eight pilgrims had been reported
trapped under the debris of the shrine, known as Qattarat Al-Imam Ali, civil
defense spokesman Nawas Sabah Shaker had said earlier.
Three children have been rescued following
Saturday’s disaster, emergency services said, adding that they were in “good
condition” and being monitored in a hospital.
Rescue teams working through the night were able to
provide supplies of oxygen, as well as food and water to some of those trapped
through gaps in the rubble, state news agency INA said.
Iraqi President Barham Saleh on Twitter called on
the “heroic” rescue workers to “mobilize all efforts to save the trapped
people”.
The emergency responders said earlier they were
maintaining verbal contact with the victims “to reassure them”.
“We are working hard, with the utmost precision, to
reach” those trapped, said Jawdat, director of the civil defense media
department.
“Any mistake could lead to further collapses.”
One man at the scene, Bassem Khazali, said his
nephew was among those buried.
“I am afraid that all the efforts undertaken will be
in vain. ... We want to know what happened, why it happened,” Khazali told AFP.
Sand, rocks collapse
Shaker told AFP that “sand
dunes and rocks collapsed onto the shrine building”, blaming the saturation of
the earth that had been caused by humidity.
The landslide on Saturday afternoon hit the shrine
located in a natural depression about 25km west of the Shiite holy city of
Karbala.
The rocks and sand started sliding because of the
“saturation of the earthen embankment adjacent to the shrine”, the civil
defense told INA.
“This led to the collapse of about 30 percent of the
area of the building, which measures about 100sq.m.”
Iraq’s holy city of Karbala is the burial place of
Imam Hussein, grandson of the Prophet Mohammed.
The stricken shrine is dedicated to Imam Ali, the
son-in-law of the Prophet Mohammed, who according to Shiite tradition stopped
there with his army on his way to a battle in 657 AD.
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