Seven dead as rescue workers pull two more bodies from rubble at Shia shrine in Iraq

Two more bodies were recovered on Monday from a shrine in Iraq's Karbala province after a landslide caused it to partially collapse, bringing the overall toll to seven dead, rescue services said.

For the latest headlines, follow our Google News channel online or via the app.

“Unfortunately, we found this morning [Monday] two bodies, a man and a woman,” under the rubble of Qattarat al-Imam Ali, Jawdat Abdelrahman, director of the civil defense media department, told AFP.

So far, the bodies retrieved from the site were a child, four women and two men, while three children had been rescued and rushed to hospital.

“We are continuing the search for other victims,” Abdelrahman said, adding that eyewitnesses said that the body of another woman was still under the rubble.

Iraqi rescue workers search for survivors trapped under the rubble of the Qattarat al-Imam Ali shrine following a landslide, on the outskirts of Karbala, August 21, 2022. (AFP)

Civil defense spokesman Nawas Sabah Shaker had said on Sunday that between six and eight pilgrims had been reported trapped under the debris of the shrine, near the Shiite holy city of Karbala.

Rescue workers had searched for two days after the shrine, which sits at the base of high, bare rock walls, was partially buried when earthen embankments collapsed due to saturation from humidity, according to the civil defense.

Iraqi rescue workers search for survivors trapped under the rubble of the Qattarat al-Imam Ali shrine following a landslide, on the outskirts of Karbala, August 21, 2022. (AFP)

It is the latest tragedy to befall oil-rich but poverty-stricken Iraq, which is trying to move past decades of war but is hobbled by political paralysis, endemic corruption and other challenges.

Rescuers on Sunday drove a bulldozer through the shrine's entrance, which resembles half a dome ornately decorated with blue tiles covered in Arabic script.

It is located in a natural depression about 25 kilometers (15 miles) west of Karbala.

Read more:

Rescuers pull four dead bodies from rubble of Iraq shrine in Karbala