A residential building in Makkah, near the Grand Mosque, has collapsed. There have been no reports of any injured or dead at this stage. The building had been scheduled for demolition, but not for Wednesday. Informed sources said external factors must have caused it to collapse. Brig. Jameel Arba'een, Director of Civil Defense in Makkah, said his organization sent its own machinery and used the equipment from construction companies. Arba'een said an eyewitness at the site said that he had seen some people passing near the building at the time of its collapse. He stressed that the Civil Defense teams have not found any signs of injured people or dead bodies at the site. However, two eyewitnesses said that they did not see any passersby during the collapse of the building, which was confirmed by workers in the area. Meanwhile, Col. Ahmad Nashi, Director of the Traffic Department in Makkah, said there was no coordination with his department to close roads in the area, as would be the case with demolitions. However, the Traffic Department has since closed the Central Area to ensure vehicles could move easily from the site and to ease the movement of Civil Defense and Red Crescent teams. The building that collapsed is one of the structures that have been expropriated to make way for the expansion of the northern part of the Grand Mosque. Informed sources said the building had not been readied for demolition yet. Targeted demolition had been carried out gradually.
