Deaths in Yemen building collapse

02/03/2010| IslamWeb

At least 18 people are believed to have died following the collapse of three buildings in Taiz, Yemen's second-largest city.

The buildings collapsed following an explosion in a dynamite warehouse under one of them, sources told Al Jazeera's correspondent in south Yemen.

The German news agency DPA reported quoting civil defense sources that rescuers pulled out the bodies of six women, two children and an elderly man from the wreckage of two buildings.

The sources also said 15 injured people were taken to hospitals.

The explosives were stored in the basement of a four-storey building that was reduced to rubble in the residential al-Masbah area of Taiz.

Witnesses told the German Press Agency DPA that the pre-dawn explosion left eight families homeless.

They said the warehouse was owned by an arms dealer and was used for road construction in the mountainous Taiz province.

"The explosion tore apart three buildings," Muhammad Saeed, a witness said by phone. "Many people are still under the wreckage."

Security officials said search-and-rescue operations were continuing.

PHOTO CAPTION

A Yemeni building

Al-Jazeera