Sixteen killed, hundreds hurt in Jerusalem building collapse

JERUSALEM - At least 16 people have been killed and 350 injured when a ceiling collapsed in a packed Jerusalem wedding hall.

Many of the injured were said to be in serious condition and a large number of people were still missing.

Police on the spot predicted the number of fatalities could rise.

A fleet of 100 ambulances was ferrying casualties from the collapsed Versailles hall, in the Talpiot area to hospitals throughout the city before and after midnight local time (9am NZT).

Rescuers searching with torches were pulling casualties out of the rubble. Hospital doctors said there were many children among the injured, including a three-month-old baby.

The Jerusalem police chief, Mickey Levy, said he discounted the possibility of a terrorist bombing. He suspected an engineering fault was to blame for the collapse.

All three floors of the glass and steel building had caved in as 650 guests attended a wedding on the top floor. The two floors below were not being used, police said.

Overwhelmed by the scale of the disaster, exhausted rescuers staggered from the rubble of building.

A young woman survivor, Meital Rafaeli, was in a kitchen at the time of the disaster. "I heard a huge noise," she said.

"People were dangling from the ceiling, some were clinging to the remains of a pillar. The DJ and a couple who were dancing just vanished."

Liel Glazer, an 18-year-old student, arrived at the scene five minutes later. "People were in shock," he said.

"There were a lot of people with injuries. Some of them were terrible. One man was totally covered in blood from the belly up."

Troops and firemen were trying to extricate dozens still trapped under the rubble as they waited for reinforcement rescue crews, with heavy lifting gear, to arrive from as far afield as Tel-Aviv and the West Bank.

The Israeli Public Security Minister, Uzi Landau, said a committee of experts would be formed to investigate the cause of the collapse.

- INDEPENDENT