Israeli rescue teams were working through the night to extricate people trapped in the rubble of a five-storey wedding hall in Jerusalem. It collapsed late last night at the height of a wedding celebration attended by some 650 people.
At 3 a.m. (local time), police reported that at least 25 people had been killed but said they could not estimate how much higher the death toll would rise since they feared dozens more people might still be buried in the mini-mountain of rubble.
At least 300 people had been treated for injuries sustained in the disaster, which was apparently caused by a structural failure. There was talk of construction work having been carried out recently on the building, including reports that supporting pillars had been removed from one or more of the lower floors.
The bride was among those badly injured; the groom was also hospitalised with lighter injuries.
Police ruled out terrorism or other foul play.
Participants at the wedding, which was taking place in the Versailles Hall on the top floor of the building, said the floor simply collapsed under their feet, pitching a huge crowd of people onto the floor below, which also collapsed under the weight of bodies and concrete, and so on all the way down to the ground floor. "It fell apart like a house of cards," said one witness. "A cloud of dust rose, and then the whole dance-floor and surrounding tables crashed down," said Mr Rami Mordechai, a wedding guest who was sitting at a table near the wall and made his way safely out of the building.
"I held on to my son's hand as we pitched down through floor after floor, battered by the concrete," said another man, who survived the fall virtually unscathed along with his 10-yearold son, but whose daughter was hospitalised.
Mr Amir Weiss, also a guest, said he saved himself by clinging onto a pillar as the floor collapsed underneath him. "I grabbed my wife as well. There were about a dozen of us on a small part of the floor that didn't fall in, on one side of the pillar. On the other side, the hole went all the way down to the car park."
For two hours afterwards, a helicopter circled the ruptured stone building, lighting the scene as dozens of ambulances ferried the injured to hospitals all over the city and beyond. Hospitals issued appeals for blood donations.
Later, Israel's army rescue squad - it has years of experience working at earthquake sites in Turkey, Kenya and elsewhere - took over the rescue operation. Long lines of local men, subsequently replaced by helmeted rescue workers, stretched out from the disaster scene, passing concrete blocks, twisted metal chairs and other debris from hand to hand, as the rescue teams cleared away rubble to extricate survivors.
The front of the building was intact. However, on the right side of the building, in a large structure distinguished by the arched balconies on the fifth floor, the collapsing masonry had left a huge gash which stretched all the way from near the flat roof down to the ground floor.
Lines of soldiers and policemen kept back not only onlookers but also hysterical relatives who feared their loved ones might be trapped.
"I've learned from experience never to try and put a number on how many people might be trapped," said Mr Gabi Ofir, the head of the army's rescue team, "but the situation is grim."