Rescue teams pulled eight people alive from the rubble in Tripoli’s Bab al-Tabbaneh neighbourhood. Fifteen others did not make it out.
Two adjoining residential buildings in the northern Lebanese city came down on Feb 8. By Feb 9, with search operations over, the death toll stood at 15, Lebanon’s National News Agency reported, citing civil defence director-general Imad Khreiss.
The head of Lebanon’s civil defence rescue service had earlier put the number of residents in the two buildings at 22. Abdel Hamid Karimeh, who heads Tripoli’s municipal council, said he could not confirm how many people were still missing.
A pattern of failing buildings
This was not the first collapse. State media, citing municipal officials, said several ageing residential buildings had fallen in Tripoli, Lebanon’s second-largest city, over recent weeks. They pointed to crumbling infrastructure and years of neglect.
After a meeting, the Lebanese Cabinet said the municipal council would order 114 at-risk buildings emptied within a month at most. Prime Minister Nawaf Salam said on X that families forced out would get temporary housing assistance for one year.
Karimeh described the problem as longstanding. He listed construction violations, years of disorder, weak oversight and a lack of regular maintenance as causes. Restrictive rent control laws played a part too, he said, because they discourage owners from paying for repairs.
Many of the city’s buildings are 60 to 70 years old, he said, and have outlived their structural lifespan without the upkeep they needed. The scale of it, in his words, was beyond what the municipality and residents could handle alone, and he called for direct state intervention.
Help for displaced families
Authorities have started placing displaced families in temporary shelter. Lebanon’s Higher Relief Committee is offering housing allowances for up to three months, Karimeh said.
He added that charities, the Ministry of Social Affairs and international organisations were coordinating their aid. The aim, he said, was to secure a minimum acceptable level of support for affected households.
