BEIRUT: Only six days after a building collapse killed 27 people in Beirut, criminal charges were pressed Friday against the owners of the seven-story structure that tumbled into a pile of rubble.

Beirut Prosecutor Judge George Karam charged brothers Michel and Claude Saadeh with causing the deaths of the 27 people, including 11 Lebanese and 16 from various nationalities, by negligence.

Karam referred the two accused men to Beirut Examining Magistrate Ghassan Oweidat.

Concern over unsafe buildings mounted as more victims of Sunday’s building collapse were laid to rest in Ashrafieh.

On Thursday, Beirut lawmakers introduced a hotline (03-000-019) for residents in the area in a bid to help them resolve any problems they were facing in the aftermath of the disaster.

“The public is now at the forefront of our priorities,” Beirut MP Michel Pharaon said during a news conference.

MP Nadim Gemayel, who also took part in the conference, said he had asked engineers and local government officials to start renovation work Friday morning in order to allow residents of the evacuated building to return to their homes as soon as possible.

The sudden and tragic collapse of the residential building in Ashrafieh killed 27 people and forced at least 15 families to evacuate an adjacent structure.