- Lebanon - The Beirut blasts have destroyed or damaged almost half the city, leaving 300,000 people homeless
- In pictures Tragedy in Beirut
- Beirut: At least 73 dead and 3,700 injured in two violent explosions in the port
"It was like an atomic bomb . " Makruhie Yerganian, a retired Lebanese professor, has lived in front of the port for more than sixty years, the epicenter of the explosion that shook Beirut, the capital of Lebanon, yesterday afternoon. The shock wave came to be felt on the island of Cyprus, almost 200 kilometers away. "I have seen everything (in my life), but I have never seen anything like it," Yerganian told AFP.
So far, the authorities and the Lebanese Red Cross have recorded more than a hundred deaths and thousands of injuries from an explosion that turned the 'ground zero' port district into a mass of rubble, razed buildings and overturned cars.
The intensity of the explosion threw victims into the sea and rescue teams continue to try to recover the bodies of the disappeared. Many of the deceased are employees of the port and customs, as well as people who worked in the area or who crossed it by car at peak time.
Moments after the shock wave swept through the streets of the capital and its surroundings, bloodied people fled the port area while they called for help , amidst clouds of smoke and dust that covered streets covered with the remains of buildings, cars and furniture. "The explosion made me fly a few meters away. I was stunned and all covered in blood," recalls designer Huda Baroudi, speaking to Reuters. "It brought back the vision of another explosion that I witnessed against the US embassy in 1983."
"Inside [the port] is a catastrophe. There are bodies on the ground. The bodies are being taken away by ambulances," a soldier located nearby told AFP. A man was crying inconsolably as he asked another soldier if he knew where his son, who was in the port, was.
Some firefighters, puzzled, were looking for colleagues who were trying to put out a raging fire just before the massive explosion , according to one of them. Several hours after the tragedy, helicopters continued to pour water from the sea to try to put out the flames.
Nearby, security guards carried the body of a comrade. One of them began to cry. "Here you are, on your wedding day," he says as he shows a photo of the deceased on his mobile phone.
Among the wounded are Syrian and Egyptian members of the crew of ships that arrived at the port on Tuesday , including one from Ukraine transporting wheat to Syria. "We have been waiting for the moment of our return to Syria for six months. We are 13 young people. Seven of us were injured," one of them told AFP.
At one of the port gates, a twenty-year-old woman ran screaming her brother's name. "His name is Jad and he has green eyes," she would say, dazed. The security forces prohibited him from passing. It was not the only one: for more than three hours, the bustle of the ambulances does not stop in the surroundings. They enter the disaster area and leave loaded with victims.
Others were searching directly for their loved ones in the overflowing hospitals. "I have never seen anything like this, it was horrible," said Rouba, a doctor who counted between 200 and 300 people admitted to the emergency department of his hospital.
OTHER NEIGHBORHOODS OF BEIRUT
In all the neighborhoods of the capital, even in the suburbs, damage caused by the explosions has been seen that shook the city and unleashed panic on the terraces of coffee shops. In buildings, residents inspected the damage. The window panes exploded, the shop windows, too, scattering a glass carpet on the sidewalks.
Photos published on social networks show damage inside the Beirut airport terminal, located nine kilometers from the site of the explosions. People who recorded the explosion from their balconies more than two kilometers away from the port assure that the shock wave launched them into the air.
All images from the moment of the brutal explosion in Beirut | THE WORLD
"I saw a ball of fire and smoke over Beirut. People were screaming and running, bleeding. Some balconies were blown out of the buildings . The glass in the tall buildings broke and fell into the street," a witness told Reuters.
Another witness, Hadi Nasrallah, says he saw the fire but was not expecting the explosion. " I lost my hearing for a few seconds, I knew something was wrong, and suddenly the glass broke throughout the car, the cars around us, the shops, the buildings . Only glass that fell from everywhere," he assured the BBC.
"OUR LEADERS ARE IN COMA"
"It is like a war zone. I have no words," Beirut Mayor Jamal Itani lamented as he inspected the damage. "This is a catastrophe for Beirut and Lebanon."
Many of those affected point directly to the authorities . "We already have an economic and financial crisis, people are hungry, and will these thieves and looters make up for the losses? Who is going to make up for those who lost their loved ones?" Asks Bilal, a Lebanese man in his sixties. years.
Speaking to Reuters, he shows little hope for the future: "It is the coup de grace for Beirut, this is a catastrophic zone . " Resident in the city center, Bilal thought it was an earthquake because his entire building "shook" with the explosion. The United States Geological Survey (USGS) claimed that its sensors recorded the explosion as a 3.3 earthquake on the Richter scale.
Hassan Zaiter, 32, is manager of the badly affected Hotel Le Gray in central Beirut: "This explosion seals the collapse of Lebanon. I blame the ruling class . " For many residents, what happened yesterday was a terrible reminder of the civil war that tore the country apart from 1975 to 1990 and which led to huge debts for the reconstruction of affected areas. "With this explosion they brought us back to the war years ... Our leaders are in a coma," said Ali Abdulwahed, 46, manager of Cafe de l'Etoile, a restaurant next to parliament.
SAVED BY THE CORONAVIRUS
The measures taken by the coronavirus, such as telecommuting and online classes, have prevented more victims from being mourned in some buildings in the city. This is the case of the Instituto Cervantes de Beirut, located in the center of the capital , where the explosion "hit the security guard and a policeman", both of Lebanese nationals, who were in the educational center.
"Due to the confinement, the students have resumed online classes since last Thursday and at that time there were no students in the center," the center director, Yolanda Soler-Onís, told Efe, adding: "It is a miracle " "The plan is to continue online classes and start rebuilding the institute," he said, since the building has suffered serious material damage.
Another example is the Associated Press (AP) office in Beirut, where the blast ripped out the windows and pushed them into the newsroom, over workplaces that at any other time would have been occupied. "The coronavirus saved us," journalist Dalal Mawad wrote on Twitter, along with a photo of the scene.
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