Most of its residents died under the rubble..Why did one of the largest buildings in Latakia collapse as a result of the earthquake, despite its recent construction?

Latakia -

"The sound of the collapse was terrifying. I rushed to the street immediately, and found a huge cloud of dust covering the place, and after the dust settled, it became clear to me that the building had been leveled to the ground. I was completely paralyzed, while the women around me were screaming at the top of their voices, and the men were rushing to the place of the collapse."

In these terms, Mustafa (53 years old) - one of the survivors of the earthquake that struck the Syrian province of Latakia at dawn last Monday - describes his first observations of the site of the collapse of the "Mobile Top" building in the Demsarkho Highway area of ​​the city.

The modern 8-storey "mobile top" building completely collapsed on the heads of its occupants a few minutes after the aftershock that hit the governorate, despite the resistance of the old neighboring homes in the face of the earthquake, leaving behind a humanitarian disaster that is the largest in the governorate. .

Many buildings in the city of Latakia were cracked by the earthquake (Al-Jazeera)

The recovery of the victims continues

The rescue and civil defense teams in the Tenth Project area are still continuing - for the fifth day - to remove the rubble and rubble of the "Mobile Top" building to save the survivors and recover the victims of the aftershock that struck the governorate at dawn on February 6.

Last Thursday, the commander of the fire brigade in Lattakia announced the end of the search operation under the rubble of the building, thus undermining the hope of the people that there are more living survivors.

While Al-Jazeera Net - during its visit to the collapsed building site - monitored a group of residents visiting the collapse site, hoping that there would be more survivors.

Most of the residents of the "Mobile Top" building died as a result of the collapse (Al-Jazeera)

A member of the civil defense participating in the rescue operation in the "Mobile Top" building told Al-Jazeera Net, "Most of the residents of the building died in the collapse, and I only witnessed the rescue operations of two children, two men and 3 women who managed to survive and hold on under the rubble."

"The bodies were transferred to the National Hospital in Latakia, and then handed over to their families after identifying them," he added.

Entire families had doomed the collapse of the "Mobile Top", such as the family of Ramiz Khair al-Din Shahrour, who died with his wife and two children, and the family of Zainab Nasr, who died with her sister and son.

Most of the modern buildings were damaged by the earthquake (Al-Jazeera)

Did the earthquake alone cause the collapse of the building?

The Mobile Top, which was built only about a year ago, was one of the first buildings to collapse due to the aftershock that hit the governorate, despite its modern style and architecture, and its short construction life.

Ahmed (a civil engineer and owner of a real estate office in the area, 40 years old), attributed the reason for the collapse of the “mobile top” to the nature of the land on which the building and the rest of the buildings of the tenth project were built in the governorate, as the land is considered “one of the most fertile agricultural lands in the region, and although the buildings are regular and non-violating, but Agricultural lands cannot stand up with all these floors, so if we dig a little below it, we will find water.”

"Often, contractors and construction companies turn a blind eye to these data and build buildings with many floors without taking into account the minimum safety and security conditions, not to mention building permits that are sometimes obtained through crooked ways, and this is the result," he added.

A number of residents of Lattakia believe that the collapse of the "mobile top" and the buildings of the tenth project is not just an accident of buildings collapsing due to an earthquake, but rather a crime whose perpetrators, including contractors, engineers, supervisory committees and officials in the municipality, must be punished.

The number of storey buildings that have completely collapsed in Lattakia has reached 65, while those that are about to fall are much more, according to the Civil Defense Commander, Brigadier General Jalal Daoud.