BEIRUT: A building collapsed in a neighborhood in Syria’s northern city of Aleppo early Sunday, killing at least 16 people, including one child, with several still missing, Syrian state media reported.

The five-story building housing about 30 people in the Sheikh Maksoud neighborhood under the control of the US-backed Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces collapsed overnight, according to the report. Water leakages had weakened the structure’s foundation, it said.

At least 10 people were killed in the collapse of a 5-storey building in the Kurdish-majority Sheikh Maqsoud neighborhood in Aleppo#Syria #Aleppo #حلب #سوريا pic.twitter.com/kaFC4QTsJ9

— Hogir Al Abdo (@Hogir_Abdo) January 22, 2023

Dozens of firefighters, first responders and residents covered in debris and dust were searching through the rubble for the remaining residents with drills and a bulldozer.

Some relatives of the tenants waited anxiously nearby, while others mourned at the entrance of a nearby hospital as the bodies arrived in ambulances and on the back of trucks.

Hawar News, the news agency for the semiautonomous Kurdish areas in Syria, reported that seven people were killed and three were injured, two of them critically.

🔹فقد 7 أشخاص حياتهم وأصيب 3 بجراح حالة اثنين منهم حرجة جراء انهيار مبنى مؤلف من 5 طوابق في حي الشيخ مقصود بمدينة حلب، وذلك بحسب الحصيلة الأولية.

🌍https://t.co/LgQKpM1ZsT pic.twitter.com/e1mVNshwNp

— hawarnews (@hawarnews) January 22, 2023

Many buildings in Aleppo were destroyed or damaged during Syria’s 11-year conflict, which has killed hundreds of thousands and displaced half the country’s pre-war population of 23 million.

Although the Syrian government under President Bashar Assad has retaken the city of Aleppo from armed opposition groups, Sheikh Maksoud is among some neighborhoods under the control of Kurdish forces.

Aleppo is Syria’s largest city and was once its commercial center.

AP