Beirut Rescue Team Searches for Possible Survivor One Month After Explosion

The rescue effort, which began on Thursday and continued overnight, has transfixed a country desperate for a glimmer of hope after the Aug. 4 explosion killed at least 190 people, injured thousands and displaced many more from devastated neighborhoods. The explosion was caused by a fire that ignited some 2,750 metric tons of ammonium nitrate that had been abandoned in a warehouse nearly seven years ago. On Thursday, the Lebanese army said it found another four tons of ammonium nitrate near Beirut’s port, which abuts the capital’s business district.

A sniffer dog first alerted rescue workers Thursday morning that something might be under the rubble of a collapsed building. A life sensor and thermal camera indicated a pulse and a possible survivor, said Akram Nehme, a member of Achrafieh 2020, a local organization that helped the team when it arrived in Lebanon from Chile. Since then, the team has been digging through the unstable rubble, Mr. Nehme said.

The 14-member team arrived on Sunday along with a sniffer dog and three tons of equipment, and has been working in the hardest-hit neighborhoods. It hasn’t been allowed to aid in the rescue efforts at the port, Mr. Nehme said.

Overnight, dozens of activists camped around the recovery site monitoring the work and occasionally confronting army soldiers who tried to pause the rescue.

In a statement, the Lebanese army said that the excavation was briefly suspended late Thursday to secure the site and make it safe for rescuers to continue. The search resumed two hours later, it said.

Activists said that the army wanted to stop the search overnight and resume in the morning, in part because of a lack of equipment. Citizens with one grass-roots organization, called Base Camp, said they were able to secure at their own expense a crane, which arrived at 3 a.m. Friday. A private contracting company, Al Janoub, also donated a machine to suck up dust that emerged when the concrete debris was moved.

Those at the site accused the government and army of getting in the way. “The army is now harassing the Chileans and telling them to stop work because they can’t find a body,” said Stephanie Bou Chedid, an activist with Base camp. “The Chileans are insisting on doing their job.”

The rescue effort has struck frayed nerves among the city’s residents, encapsulating their frustration with a Lebanese government that has been largely absent through one of the country’s biggest tragedies. “We are ashamed of ourselves,” said Joseph Daccache, the owner of a nearby shop. “Anywhere in the world the local teams lead the effort, except Lebanon.”

His wife, Marie Daccache, was sitting next to him in front of the battered storefront of their shop, meters away from the sight of the dig. She muttered prayers for the safety of the civil defense rescue workers.

Since the explosion, ordinary Lebanese and grass-roots organizations have stepped up to deliver food and other aid, inspect and rebuild homes and provide shelters. They have filled the vacuum left by state institutions, which have been criticized for years of neglect before the blast and inadequate assistance since.

Write to Raja Abdulrahim at raja.abdulrahim@wsj.com