BEIRUT (AP) — The Latest on the explosion in Beirut (all times local):
2:55 p.m.
A team of German engineers sent to Lebanon to help search for people trapped in the rubble after last week’s explosion in Beirut is returning home, having failed to find any survivors.
Joerg Eger, who heads the THW agency’s rapid rescue team in Lebanon, said Sunday that a number of specialist engineers would remain in Beirut until Thursday to assist in determining the safety of buildings affected by the blast.
TWF is a federal agency, but most of the people who go on missions are volunteers.
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2:35 p.m.
French President Emmanuel Macron said that an international donors’ conference is aiming to show global support for Lebanon after the devastating Beirut blast.
Over 30 international leaders and government officials were taking part Sunday in the video conference co-organized by France and the United Nations to raise money, including President Donald Trump, Jordan’s King Abdullah II and Egypt’s President Abdel Fattah el-Sissi. Officials from China, European countries and Gulf countries were also attending.
Turkey and Russia, absent from the conference, are expected to provide aid as well, Macron said in his opening speech.
Macron, who was the first foreign leader to visit Beirut in the wake of the explosion, said emergency aid will focus on providing medicine, care, food and housing.
“It is important that aid goes as quickly as possible to public and private actors, NGOs and the civilian society,” under U.N. supervision, he added.
Macron also called on Lebanese authorities to carry out essential political and economic reforms to fight corruption in the country.