Beirut Building Collapse Kills 26

At least 26 people were killed when an old six-storey building in the Lebanese capital of Beirut collapsed, with more people still trapped under the rubble.
"26 Bodies have been recovered and we believe there are more buried under the building that collapsed Sunday evening," Red Cross official Georges Kettaneh said on Monday.
A dozen people were also injured, none of them seriously. Civil defence chief General Raymond Khattar said the bodies recovered by rescuers who worked through Sunday night and Monday included those of seven Lebanese, six Sudanese, two Filipinos and two Egyptians.
Among the dead was a 15-year-old Lebanese girl, and those hurt included her grandmother as well as a 73-year-old Lebanese man, at least two Sudanese, an Egyptian and a Filipina.
The building housed some 50 people, many of them labourers from Sudan and Egypt, Khattar said, adding that at least eight people were known to have escaped as the building came down.
A Syrian labourer at a nearby building site said debris started falling from the building in the early evening before the entire block came crashing down.
"We saw small pieces of stone falling down but no one paid any attention at the start," he said. "Then large chunks of stone started falling and people began screaming for everyone to get out. Within minutes, the building was on the floor."
One resident who escaped with her mother said the building was extremely rundown and the owner had warned tenants not to remain there shortly before it disintegrated. AFP.