An 80-year-old man was killed Monday after a balcony collapsed onto a bakery in Jerusalem’s Rehavia neighborhood, leaving his wife and two teenagers lightly injured.
The balcony fell onto an Angel Bakery branch on Keren Kayemet LeIsrael Street, causing extensive damage to the bakery and the three-story residential building above it.
Footage from Jerusalem
(Video: Liran Tamari)
The elderly man was pulled from the rubble unconscious and in critical condition. His death was later pronounced.
His wife, also about 80, and two boys aged 16 and 17 suffered minor injuries.
Large numbers of firefighters, paramedics, police officers and Home Front Command personnel were deployed to the scene and continued searching the building to rule out the possibility that additional people were trapped.
According to Israel Fire and Rescue Services, the balcony that collapsed was located on the building’s second floor. The bakery operates on the ground floor.
The incident was reported to the Magen David Adom emergency service at 5:25 p.m.
Two people were initially pulled from the rubble by civilians who were at the scene. Rescue forces later extracted two additional people from inside the bakery before reaching the elderly man.
Keren Kayemet LeIsrael Street was closed to traffic as emergency crews worked at the site.
(Photo: Israel Fire and Rescue Services)
Police officers who arrived shortly after the collapse were seen holding part of the building’s frame in an effort to prevent further sections from falling.
Magen David Adom medics Eli Eisenbach, Daniel Elyakim and Meir Gershoni said they arrived to find several frightened injured people who had managed to escape, while one man remained trapped beneath the debris.
“We received a report of a balcony that had collapsed onto a business,” they said.
“We arrived with large forces and saw several frightened casualties who had come out toward us, as well as a man trapped under the rubble in critical condition.”
(Photo: Gil Yohanan)
The medics said they treated the elderly woman and the two teenagers for abrasions before evacuating them to a hospital in light condition.
Jerusalem Municipality said its dangerous-buildings team and the city engineer were sent to the scene to assess the structure’s stability.
Municipal engineers were working alongside rescue and emergency services to identify additional risks and issue instructions for the building’s continued handling.
The municipality said it would act in accordance with the professional findings and recommendations once the inspections were completed.