Death Toll in Lebanon Bombing Climbs to 69; Man Found Alive
The death toll from Lebanon’s worst car bombing in three years climbed to 69 Sunday after 15 of the wounded died in hospitals. One man, a grocer, was dragged injured but alive from a wrecked building in the shattered marketplace.
Local officials in the northern port city declared two days of public mourning for the victims of Saturday’s explosion that knocked down buildings and set dozens of cars ablaze in the crowded market.
Police said 111 people were wounded by the blast, in the low-income Bab al Tabbaneh district of Tripoli, the country’s second-largest city. Radio stations broadcast urgent appeals for blood.
Civil defense rescue teams who clawed through the rubble during the night called off their search early Sunday after dragging the 33-year-old survivor to safety, police reported.
The man, who was not identified, had been buried for more than 16 hours. He was taken to Batroun Hospital, 15 miles south of Tripoli, because the city’s hospitals were already overflowing with casualties.
No group has claimed responsibility for the bombing in the Syrian-controlled city, and police said they had no clues as to who was behind it.
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