Israel: 18 wounded as parking garage collapses in Tel Aviv

An underground parking garage under construction in Tel Aviv failed Monday morning, leaving at least 18 people wounded.

MDA crisis responders said one man was critically injured in the failure. Witnesses say he seemed to be in his mid-20 s and was a worker at the site. He suffered serious injuries to limbs and head.

Another victim is reasonable state, with an additional 16 individuals wounded.

A foreman at the construction site reported 15 workers were still unaccounted for and may be buried under the rubble that.

“There are people buried,” said Fire and Rescue spokesman Yoram Levy. “We’ve rushed in all available teams; more than 60 [fire] fighters have arrived on the scene,” he said.

Moshe Levy, a volunteer emergency first-responder with United Hatzalah reported from the scene: “When I arrived I found numerous hurt individuals who were conscious and who extricated themselves from the area of the collapse under their own power.”

“It appeared to me that the roof of a parking garage had collapsed in the building site. While members of our ambu-cycle unit who arrived first on scene were treating the injured, reports came in of other people who were unaccounted for and likely still trapped inside. Firefighters and rescue teams are working to extricate them. At this time the wounded we are treating are suffering from minor injuries and are all fully conscious.”