The collapse of an old building in the Bab al-Tabbaneh neighborhood in Tripoli on Sunday resulted in 14 deaths and a number of injuries, according to a toll reported Monday by the National News Agency, which added that search and rescue operations had ended and eight people had been rescued. While nearby buildings were evacuated amid public anger and warnings of buildings about to collapse, with an official pledge to investigate and provide housing alternatives for those affected.

Published on: 02/09/2026 - 00:25

To view this content from YouTube, it is necessary to allow the collection of viewing rates and YouTube ads.

It appears that an application in your Internet browser is preventing the video player from loading. In order to view this content, you must cancel its use.

The Lebanese National News Agency said on Monday that 14 people were killed as a result of the collapse of a residential building in the city of Tripoli in northern Lebanon, adding that search and rescue operations had ended. The agency quoted the Director General of Civil Defense, General Imad Khuraish, as saying that the operations had ended and that eight people had been rescued.

In the details of the incident, the National News Agency reported on Sunday that an old building collapsed in the Bab al-Tabbaneh neighborhood, one of the poorest neighborhoods in Tripoli, while rescuers were still searching for survivors under the rubble.

The authorities began evacuating the buildings surrounding the site, in anticipation of the possibility of them collapsing as well.

Rescue teams continued their work throughout the night over the rubble of the collapsed building, while ambulances were stationed near the site in preparation for transporting the injured.

For his part, the Director General of Civil Defense, Imad Khraish, told local media that the death toll had reached nine, while six people rescued from under the rubble were transferred to the hospital for treatment.

Regarding the collapsed building, Khraish explained that it consisted of two sections, each containing six residential apartments, and he estimated the number of people inside it at the moment of the collapse at about 22 people.

In a comment from Al-Maidan, social activist Jomana Al-Shahal considered that what happened represented “a testimony to the accumulated neglect of this forgotten city.”

At the level of local reaction, the mayor of Tripoli, Abdul Hamid Karima, announced in a press conference that “Tripoli is a disaster-stricken city” due to the large number of buildings threatened with collapse and the lives of thousands of residents at risk as a result of years of neglect, adding that “the situation exceeds the capabilities of the Tripoli municipality.”

Read also: The Lebanese Prime Minister visits destroyed southern towns and pledges to rebuild them

This collapse came after a similar incident that occurred late last month when another building collapsed in the city.

Following the collapse of the building on Sunday, the National News Agency’s correspondent from Tripoli spoke of protests of anger taking place in the streets of the city to protest its neglect, with the participation of young men on motorcycles, some of whom headed to the offices of a number of politicians and broke the iron barriers in front of them.

As for previous warnings, the head of the government’s Higher Relief Commission, Bassam Nabulsi, said last month that “there are 105 buildings, according to the Tripoli municipality’s census, that need immediate warnings to their residents.”

Despite these warnings, local media reported that the building that collapsed on Sunday was not included in the list of threatened buildings.

Accumulated neglect

At the official level, President Joseph Aoun issued directives to ambulance services to “alert to assist in rescue operations,” in addition to ensuring that shelter is provided for the residents of the collapsed building and the residents of neighboring buildings that were evacuated in reserve, according to a presidential statement.

In the broader scene, inhabited buildings are widespread in Lebanon, although they are dilapidated or on the verge of collapse, many of which were built without legal permits, especially during the years of civil war between 1975 and 1990, while some owners added new floors to existing buildings without obtaining the necessary permits.

Tripoli and other areas in Lebanon witnessed repeated building collapse incidents, in a country where parts of urban areas suffer from poor compliance with construction safety standards, with buildings built randomly for decades on communal lands.

For his part, Prime Minister Nawaf Salam confirmed in a statement that the government is ready to "provide shelter allowances to all residents of buildings required to be evacuated," describing what happened as "a humanitarian catastrophe that is the result of long years of accumulated neglect."

As an urgent measure, Salam's office announced that it had summoned the Ministers of Justice and Interior for an emergency meeting to discuss developments in the incident.

Request to open an investigation

On the judicial side, Minister of Justice Adel Nassar sent a request to the Public Prosecutor in the North to open an immediate investigation into the incident, according to the National News Agency, which indicated that the procedures had begun.

These developments come in a country reeling under the weight of an unprecedented economic crisis for more than six years, which has pushed a large segment of the Lebanese below the poverty line.

As a result of the crisis, several sectors were damaged, including the construction sector, and the condition of much of the infrastructure in other regions deteriorated.

According to a recent report issued by the Public Works Studio for research and design, Tripoli witnessed the complete or partial collapse of a number of buildings in January.

According to the same report, several factors contributed to the exacerbation of these collapses in a city dominated by poverty, including unplanned urban expansion and the absence of effective oversight of construction work.

On the human rights front, Amnesty International had urged the Lebanese authorities in 2024 to conduct a comprehensive field survey “urgently to assess the safety of buildings throughout the country.”

At the time, the organization particularly drew attention to the situation in Tripoli, where “thousands of people reside... in unsafe buildings” after the devastating earthquake that struck Turkey and Syria in February 2023 and caused damage to a number of buildings in Lebanon.

The organization concluded its warning by emphasizing that the residents of Tripoli, “even before the earthquakes occurred,” had sounded the alarm about “the horrific condition of their homes resulting from decades of neglect.”

France 24/AFP/Reuters

Keywords related to the article

The content you want to browse is no longer in service or is currently unavailable.