Two killed and dozens injured in bleacher collapse at Israel synagogue near Jerusalem
- The Magen David Adom rescue service said paramedics had treated more than 157 people for injuries and pronounced two dead
- The accident comes weeks after a stampede at a religious festival in northern Israel that killed 45 ultra-Orthodox Jews
Israeli medical staff said on Sunday that at least two people were killed and more than 150 injured in a bleacher collapse at an uncompleted synagogue in a West Bank settlement near Jerusalem.
Amateur footage showed the collapse occurring during prayers on Sunday evening in Givat Zeev, just outside Jerusalem, at the beginning of the Jewish holiday of Shavuot. The ultra-Orthodox synagogue was packed with hundreds of people.
A spokesman for Magen David Adom rescue service said paramedics had treated more than 157 people for injuries and pronounced two dead, a man in his 50s and a 12-year-old boy. .
Rescuers were on the scene, treating the injured and taking people to the hospital. The collapse comes weeks after 45 ultra-Orthodox Jews were killed in a stampede at a religious festival in northern Israel.
The Israeli military said in a statement that it dispatched medical staff and other search and rescue troops to assist at the scene. Army helicopters were airlifting the injured.
Israeli authorities traded blame at the scene of the disaster.