JERUSALEM — Brick by brick, rescue workers dug for survivors today from a wedding that turned tragic when the top floor of their banquet hall collapsed, killing at least 23 people and injuring more than 300. Horrifying video footage showed hundreds of merrymakers suddenly disappear in a cloud of dust and orange sparks.
Assi and Keren Sror had just become husband and wife at the Versailles wedding hall, and hundreds of guests had streamed on the dance floor late Thursday. Suddenly, without warning, the floor caved in and the dancers fell into the abyss.
Screaming guests on the edges of the dance floor peered down into the crater in disbelief. The footage, broadcast on Israeli TV stations, showed one man scooping up a little girl in the mayhem. An elderly man walked right up to the large hole and was escorted away by a woman.
Tamar Revivo, 26, said she fell into the abyss with the others. "We were on people — those poor people," Revivo said today from her hospital bed, where she was being treated for a fractured right ankle. "I'd see a hand. I'd see a person. They tried to get me out, and I had to walk on them."
Sara Pinhas, a relative of the groom, said dancers had just lifted the father of the groom on a chair, a traditional part of the Jewish wedding celebration, when suddenly he fell, "and then we felt the whole building collapse, everything fell down."
"We managed to climb down the side of the building," she said.
Jerusalem police ruled out the possibility of a terror attack, saying the building collapsed because of structural failure. According to first reports, the building appeared not to be up to construction codes. Several supporting columns in the halls had also been removed to enlarge the reception area and the floor tiles had recently been replaced, the reports said.
By Friday afternoon, the death toll had reached at least 23 as body after body was pulled from the pile of rubble, concrete slabs and twisted metal. An army spokesman, Lt. Olivier Rafowicz, said dozens of people were still missing. The death toll was expected to rise.
Five bodies were found near a table, including a couple embracing one another, said Yehuda Meshi Zahav, head of an ultra-Orthodox rescue volunteer group.
Maj. Gen. Gabi Ofir, in charge of the rescue operation, said 309 people were taken to hospitals with injuries. Hospital doctors said many children were among them, including a 3-month-old.
Among the injured were the newlyweds. Assi was treated for minor injuries and released. But Keren, carried out on a stretcher in her fluffy white dress, suffered hip and chest injuries and might need surgery, doctors said.
Alisa Sror, the mother of the groom, said she had just congratulated her son when the floors opened up. "The wall collapsed on them, the floor, the tables," she said from her hospital bed.
Prime Minister Ariel Sharon sent his condolences and promised a thorough investigation.
The Palestinian Authority expressed its "deep sorrow" to the Israeli government and offered to help with the rescue work.
The gesture came at a time of bitter conflict and new violence between the two sides, who have been trading accusations over who is responsible for eight months of fighting that has killed 562 people.
In back-to-back suicide attacks today, a truck blew up near a heavily fortified Israeli army post in the Gaza Strip and a car bomb exploded near a bus in central Israel. Three assailants were killed and 39 Israelis were injured, most lightly.
In the Jerusalem hall collapse, rescue workers, aided by German shepherds, searched for survivors and removed bodies from the rubble, carrying them on stretchers covered with blankets. Ofir said that rescue efforts would continue for at least four or five days. It was the worst disaster of its kind in Israel's history.