Three children were rescued. Oxygen, food and water were delivered to people still trapped under the rubble.
Two more bodies were removed Monday, August 22 from the rubble of a Shiite shrine in Iraq, part of which collapsed following a landslide, bringing to seven the number of fatal victims of this accident, learned the AFP with the emergency services.
“Unfortunately, we found this morning (Monday, editor’s note) two bodies, that of a man and that of a womanUnder the rubble of Imam Ali’s Qattarat, a sanctuary near Karbala (central Iraq), Jaoudat Abdelrahmane, director of the Civil Defense media department, told AFP. For the time being, the rescuers have removed seven lifeless bodies from the rubble of this place of pilgrimage: four women, two men and a child. Three children were rescued and hospitalized. “We continue to search for other victimsin the rubble, continued Jaoudat Abdelrahmane. “Witnesses told us that the body of a woman was still” under the rubble.
About 30% of the building surface collapsed
According to Iraqi Civil Defense spokesman Nawas Sabah Shaker, a portion of earth and rock from the mounds that surround the shrine broke away on Saturday afternoon.due to high humidityand fell on the building. The landslide caused the collapseabout 30% of the total area of the building, which measures some 100 square meters“, he explained. The tragedy caused considerable emotion in Iraq, whose population is predominantly Shia Muslim.
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Quoted by the state news agency INA, the rescuers said they had managed to transmit oxygen, food and water to people trapped under the rubble. Imam Ali’s Qattarat is located about 25 km from the holy Shia city of Karbala and it attracts Shia pilgrims in their thousands every year. The shrine is dedicated to Imam Ali, son-in-law of the Prophet Muhammad and founding figure of Shia Islam. According to Shia tradition, Imam Ali stopped here with his army on his way to the Battle of Siffin in 657 and caused a spring to spring up there.