Scores of Israelis hurt in bleacher collapse at West Bank synagogue
At least two people killed and more than 150 worshippers injured as grandstand seating collapses at a synagogue in illegal settlement of Givat Zeev, medics and local media say.
Jewish worshippers and rescue workers carry injured people outside a synagogue where a grandstand collapsed during a religious celebration in Givat Zeev, in the occupied West Bank, May 16, 2021.
A bleacher packed with worshippers has collapsed in a synagogue in occupied West Bank on the eve of a major Jewish holiday, killing two people and wounding more than 150 others, medics said.
Amateur footage on Sunday showed the stands collapsing during prayers at the beginning of the Jewish holiday of Shavuot.
The synagogue in Givat Zeev, just north of occupied Jerusalem, was filled with hundreds of ultra-Orthodox worshippers.
Israeli TV stations showed rows of rescue vehicles lined up in the town as medics evacuated the wounded on stretchers.
A spokesman for Magen David Adom told Channel 13 that paramedics had treated over 157 people for injuries and pronounced two dead, a man in his 50s and a 12-year-old boy.
Stampede deaths
The accident came weeks after a stampede at a a religious festival in northern Israel killed 45 ultra-Orthodox Jews.
The stampede triggered renewed criticism over the broad autonomy granted to the country's politically powerful ultra-Orthodox minority.
Last year, many ultra-Orthodox communities flouted coronavirus safety restrictions, contributing to high outbreak rates in their communities and angering the broader secular public.
Blame game
The Israeli military said in a statement that it dispatched medics and other search and rescue troops to assist at the scene. Army helicopters were airlifting the injured.
Israeli authorities traded blame at the scene of the disaster.
The mayor of Givat Zeev said the building was unfinished and dangerous, and that the police had ignored previous calls to take action.
Jerusalem police chief Doron Turgeman said the disaster was a case of "negligence" and that there would likely be arrests.
Deddi Simhi, head of the Israel Fire and Rescue service, told Israel's Channel 12 that "this building is not finished. It doesn't even have a permit for occupancy, and therefore let alone holding events in it."
Television footage from the scene showed the building was incomplete, with exposed concrete and boards visible.
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