GERUSALEMME From the festive toasts of the wedding to the terror of the rubble. A five-story building in which there was a salon for marriages that housed 650 people collapsed in Jerusalem last night: for the time being there are about 300 wounded, of whom about twenty are serious, and at least 30 have died. But there are still many people left under the debris, according to the latest information at least 50. According to the first investigations the tragedy would be due to a structural failure. The palace was not old, having been built a dozen years ago. On suspicion of manslaughter, eight people were arrested. The four owners of the banquet hall, two building contractors, an engineer and a builder responsible for the construction of the building are finished. Israel’s health facilities have declared a state of emergency. Hundreds of wounded have filled the aisles of Jerusalem’s hospitals.

The disaster – probably one of the most serious in the history of Israel – occurred in the Versailles Palace, a marriage hall in the industrial area of ​​Talpiot. The marriage of two young men, Assaf and Keren Dror, was being celebrated. The bride is in the hospital, has several fractures and, in tears, apologized for being the involuntary cause of the tragedy. The groom is slightly injured. The collapse occurred while friends were lifting him on his shoulders to bring him in triumph. “We were sitting at a table – said a young woman who emerged from the rubble – when suddenly the room moved, as in an earthquake. The tables crossed each other, the floor opened and we were sucked into the bass”. “There was no explosion,” he added.

Alice Dror, the groom’s mother (the father and brother of the young man are missing), made heavy accusations to those who should have ensured that the building could be used as a wedding hall. The picture that emerges from the investigation is complex. The building was not designed to house offices and was later remodeled to accommodate receptions. The building collapsed in a few minutes, burying everyone. Those who had the good fortune of being in the upper part, began to dig with their bare hands to extract the relatives from the rubble. Among the first to lend aid was Yehuda Meshi-Zahav, an Orthodox Jew who runs a rescue unit. “I have often seen the victims of attacks – said Meshi-Zahav – but a disaster of this size is also unprecedented for me”. According to the rescuers, there may be numerous bodies under the rubble. The head of Israeli police information services, David Tzuri, said that rescuers work by hand, with great caution. “They cannot use tools, the situation is very delicate, because the building can collapse completely at any time”, he specified. The television showed images of large reinforced concrete blocks raised by hand to free the victims of the collapse. “We have no idea of ​​the number of people still buried,” Tzuri added. Some people, still under the rubble, used their cell phones to let people know they were alive. According to Health Minister Nissim Dahan, people still buried under the rubble are several dozen, while the second television channel has spoken of at least a hundred.