Volunteers dig through the rubble of collapsed buildings after signs of life were detected in a neighborhood of Beirut, Lebanon, Sept. 5, 2020, devastated by a massive blast Aug. 4, 2020.
Rescue teams in Lebanon continued their search on Saturday for a possible survivor under the rubble of a building that collapsed in the deadly blast last month at the Port of Beirut.
Search operations restarted Thursday afternoon, after a sniffer dog with a Chilean search and rescue team detected a pulse signal one day earlier, as they were going through the neighborhood of Gemmayzeh.
High tech sensors confirmed a likely heartbeat a month after the massive August 4 blast killed at least 191 people, wounded thousands, and traumatized the country. Despite removing piles of rubble, the teams have not found the source of the sensor reading.
"Search operations have been going on since the day before yesterday (Thursday,) but the chances are very low," the civil defense agency's operations director, George Abou Moussa, told AFP.
Lebanon does not possess the tools and expertise to carry out advanced search and rescue operations, but officials have been supported by experts from the United States, Chile, and France.