Two people, a 12-year-old boy and a man in his 40s, were killed and 132 people were injured on Sunday night when a bleacher collapsed at a synagogue in the Jerusalem suburb of Givat Ze'ev during Shavuot prayers.
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Initial police reports said that some 600 people were at the synagogue at the time of the incident. The building was still under construction and was not authorized to hold a mass event, Channel 12 News reported.
The incident comes mere weeks after 45 ultra-Orthodox Jews have killed a stampede at the annual Lag B'Omer festival on Mount Meron, in northern Israel.
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Magen David Adom emergency services said that the injured were evacuated to the Shaare Zedek, Hadassah Mount Scopus and Hadassah Ein Kerem hospitals in Jerusalem. Of the 132 people wounded in the collapse, five are in serious condition, eight in moderate condition and 119 sustained minor injuries.
As soon as MDA had declared a mass-casualty event, IDF Home Front Command and military medical personnel from the Central Command deployed to the scene to assist in dealing with the incident.
Israeli Air Force helicopters and medical personnel were also deployed to the scene.
The police and the local council traded blame over the on Sunday. The police warned the local council that holding services on the premises – an unfinished building devoid of an occupancy permit – was dangerous, but the local authority said that when it asked police to step up enforcement of the issue, they were told it was the council's job.
Jerusalem District Police Commander Maj. Gen. Doron Turgeman, who commanded the scene, told reporters that the building was not cleared for use by the police.
"The police informed the local council that the synagogue should not be used. It was the responsibility of a local authority to prevent worshippers from entering it," he said.
He added that the fact that a prayer service was held in a structure that the police had deemed unsafe was "negligent and irresponsible."
Givat Ze'ev Regional Council Head Yossi Avrahami said that the council had warned against holding events at the synagogue.
"The council appealed to all relevant authorities to warn them about this issue," he told reporters at the scene.
"We closed it with signs saying that the site is dangerous, that holding any event here was off limits. The police said they were not liable for any event," he said.
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