Firefighters Rescue 16 Iranian Jews Trapped under Rubble
TEHRAN (Tasnim) – Tehran’s Firefighting Organization said 15 men and one woman were pulled out of the rubble after an old building used as synagogue collapsed in the Iranian capital.
Jalal Maleki, the spokesman for the organization, told the Tasnim News Agency that the firefighters were informed of the collapse early in the Friday morning.
Units from two stations were dispatched, and managed to rescue 16 Jewish people trapped under the rubble of the synagogue, he added.
The entrapped people got out of the building unharmed, but the collapse incurred damages to three cars parked in front of the building, the spokesman said.
The two-story building was a very old one with cracks all over the walls, Maleki noted.
Media reports quoted another firefighter as saying that the owner has been doing excavations underneath the same building, and this led to cracks on the walls.
A Jewish witness says he had already warned the owner of the imminent collapse and urged him to stop the excavation.
“If the incident would have occurred tomorrow (Saturday) which is our praying day, there would be the possibility of fatalities due to the presence of 250 people,” the witness added.
