Deaths as building collapses in Syria's Aleppo

Collapse of multi-storey building in the northern province's Fardous neighbourhood — heavily bombed in the 11-year-civil war — leaves at least 11 people dead, regime media report.

Many of the buildings in Aleppo city have been completely destroyed or damaged during Syria's 11-year conflict.
AP

Many of the buildings in Aleppo city have been completely destroyed or damaged during Syria's 11-year conflict.

A building has collapsed in Syria's northern city of Aleppo, killing at least 11 people, including three children, the regime media reported.

It said the illegally built, five-storey building in Aleppo's southern neighbourhood of Fardous collapsed in the evening. It said seven women, three children and an elderly man were killed.

"The bodies of six women, three children and a man were recovered, while a child and a woman were rescued from under the rubble and taken to hospital," the regime-run SANA news agency said.

Civil defence and local authorities evacuated residents from nearby buildings and began removing rubble, police commander Major General Deeb Deeb told SANA.

The building collapsed due to "a lack of engineering foundations", SANA quoted Maad Medlaji, head of the Aleppo city council, as saying.

Aleppo's fall

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights war monitor said the collapsed building was located in a neighbourhood "previously bombed with barrel bombs and missiles".

Fardous was an opposition-controlled neighbourhood until December 2016, when regime forces with the help of Russia and Iran captured eastern parts of the city, which had been held by rebels for four years.

Aleppo is Syria's largest city and was once its commercial centre.

Many of the city's buildings were completely destroyed or damaged during Syria's 11-year conflict.

The conflict has killed hundreds of thousands and displaced half the country's pre-war population of 23 million.

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