Beirut explosion rescuers detect ‘heartbeat’ under rubble 30 days after deadly blast

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Rescuers in Beirut explosion are digging through rubble after a possible human heartbeat was detected a month after an explosion killed almost 200 people.

There are hopes a survivor could be found alive as members of a search and rescue team desperately searched the remains of a collapsed building with their hands.

A group of workers pulled up chunks of concrete and other broken masonry as they dug down in the residential district of Gemmayze after rescue workers said on Thursday they had detected signs of a pulse and breathing, a witness told Reuters.

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A sniffer dog first detected something in rubble that had previously been searched, and a team then used specialist sensor equipment to listen for a possible heartbeat, detecting what might be a pulse of 18-19 beats per minute.

The search was suspended overnight, but volunteers continued to dig with their hands.

The August 4 explosion at the nearby Beirut port, caused by massive amounts of badly stored ammonium nitrate, killed about 190 people and injured 6,000.

Some 300,000 people were left homeless.