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CNN Saturday Morning News

Ten Arrested After Wedding Hall Collapse in Jerusalem

Aired May 26, 2001 - 09:08   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: Turning now to that devastating wedding hall collapse in Israel, dogs are being used as the search for survivors continues today. And more people have been arrested in connection with the investigation, which is focusing on shoddy construction.

CNN's Sheila MacVicar joins us now live from Jerusalem with the latest -- Sheila.

SHEILA MACVICAR, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Israeli police have arrested 10 people, among them the owners of the building, contractors who recently carried out renovation work, an engineer who was involved in that work. And they've also arrested a man who designed and developed a flooring system, in fact, patented it, that was widely used in construction in Israel throughout the 1980s.

Now, the police aren't saying which particular aspect they're focusing on. They're not saying what -- if they know, in fact -- what exactly caused the structural failure of this building. But those are the things that they are looking at.

This flooring system has been used widely, as I said, throughout Israel. There are many hundreds of thousands of square meters of public and commercial buildings that use it. There have been other cases of collapses of buildings with this flooring system.

But there will be very many Israelis who are worried who go to work in those buildings if this floor is held to be responsible -- Kyra.

PHILLIPS: All right, Sheila MacVicar, thanks so much.

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