HAIFA, April 6 — An Iranian missile struck a residential building in Israel’s northern city of Haifa yesterday, the Israeli military said, injuring four people according to rescue services.

The strike took place minutes after the military warned it had detected a new round of missiles fired from Iran.

The building was hit by a “direct impact of a missile”, a military spokesperson told AFP, confirming the missile was fired from Iran.

Israel’s emergency service, Magen David Adom, said four people were wounded when the seven-storey building sustained a direct hit.

Israel’s Fire and Rescue Services said firefighters were searching for three missing people.

“Firefighters continue to operate at the scene of a building that has partially collapsed,” the service said.

The injured included an 82-year-old man, MDA said, adding that he was in a “serious condition”.

He was “wounded by a heavy object and the blast”, the MDA said, adding that the other three suffered shrapnel and blast injuries.

The three injured included a 10-month old baby who suffered a head injury, MDA said.

Dozens of Israeli security and members of rescue forces were deployed at the site of the strike, an AFP correspondent reported.

Images and footage published by MDA show smoke rising from the remains of a flattened building in a densely populated area, and stretchers laid on the road by rescuers for casualties.

MDA paramedic Shevach Rothenshtrych quoted residents saying that there were casualties trapped under the rubble on the lower floors, and the 82-year-old was rescued after first responders “managed to move large pieces of concrete with our hands”.

His colleague Tal Shustak said that when emergency calls were received, “we were dispatched in large forces to the scene and saw extensive destruction, including glass, smoke and concrete scattered across the ground”. — AFP