Lebanese gathered for a vigil and prayer on Friday to mark one month since the massive explosion at Beirut’s port devastated the city.
Not far away, rescue workers spent the day on a long-shot search for a possible survivor under the rubble of a collapsed building.
After darkness fell, and with hope dwindling, their operation was largely ceased until Saturday morning.
The army had stood for a minute of silence at the port alongside family members, who lost loved ones in the explosion on Aug. 4, which killed at least 190, wounded 6,000 others, and left Lebanon in a state of shock.
At another event near the blast site white roses were distributed to the families of the dead and wounded, while clergymen representing the main religious sects in Lebanon prayed.
The minute of silence was also observed by people passing on the road near the port, while traffic came to a standstill at exactly 6:07pm – the time the blast occurred.
The tragedy was blamed on ammonium nitrate, which was poorly stored in a port warehouse.
Church bells tolled in the city as mosques’ loudspeakers recited verses from the holy Koran to mourn the dead.
A few meters away and 30 days after the explosion, a frantic search for a possible survivor was in its second day, in spite of the slim chances of finding someone alive at this point.
The hope was kindled when Chilean rescue workers said on Thursday that they had detected a sign of life from under the rubble of a collapsed building in the Gemmayze neighbourhood.
A sniffer dog named Flash – brought to Beirut by the Chilean rescuers – was the first to respond to a scent at the site.
Electronic sensors were then brought in to examine the area and they also detected signals that could indicate someone was trapped below.
Francisco Lermanda, leader of the Chilean “Topos” rescue team, told reporters Friday evening that he could neither confirm nor rule out that there was anyone alive under the huge pile of debris.
“We have to reach 3 meters – this is where we received the signal,” he said.
He added that audio equipment detected what appeared to be weak breathing – initially between 18 and 20 breaths per minute – and that the specialists told them that it indicated a person could be about 3 metres deep.
Lermanda said the digging crews were tunnelling toward the location from multiple directions and had reached 1.2 meters deep so far.
Later in the day, Lebanese engineer Riad al-Assad, who is helping the Chilean team, said the team “did a test between 4:30 and 6:30 local time but they did not hear anything, they repeated it at 8:30 and also the same result.”
Al-Assad said work was being paused for the coming hours.
The Chilean team has been working for 48 hours non-stop, he said.
The Chilean volunteers are part of a Mexican rescue non-profit named “Los Topos” and are being aided by Lebanese civil defence volunteers.
Lebanese broadcaster MTV said earlier that the rescue workers had detected a sign of life again on Friday, but that the indications were weaker than the previous day.
Another engineering expert at the scene told local television broadcasters that they had scanned the first floor using a laser camera equipped with temperature sensors to establish whether there were any bodies inside, but found nothing.
“All we saw is rubble, no bodies,” said the expert, who did not identify himself.
He added that they would have seen clearly on the camera if there was someone alive in the area.
