Beirut: Anatomy of a lethal explosion - BBC News

where you were standing would have made the difference between life and death [Music] i was wondering what happened am i going to die on how i'm going to die my colleagues and i rushed to the er to find that there was actually nothing left it took only seconds to cause so much death and damage that lebanese people are calling it their 911 we're going to take you from the epicentre of this horrific blast and hear from the people in its path as it ripped through the centre of a city once known as the paris of the middle east killing an injury and leaving more than a quarter of a million people without habitable homes beirut is the capital of lebanon and home to two million people it's an ancient city scarred by war but vibrant welcoming and full of life over the decades it suffered so much but no single event as bad as this this is the epicenter a warehouse in beirut's port where the disaster began with a fire inside unbeknownst to most of beirut were nearly 3 000 tons of the fertilizer ammonium nitrate and they weren't being safely stored when that exploded it looked like a mushroom cloud and felt like an earthquake as far away as cyprus as the shock waves radiated out boats were blown out of the water grain stores on which this country relies were destroyed and the firefighters who'd rushed in when the fire first broke out really didn't stand a chance sahafaras was one of them and one of the first of the dead to be named she was a volunteer firefighter just 25 years old and about to get married footage posted on social media shows her distraught fiance behind the coffin trying to lay his hand on it to get as close to her as he can st george's hospital is close to the waterfront in the labour ward a young woman called emmanuel was about to give birth to bring new life into the world her husband edmund was filming when it happened ceiling was down i was afraid that she might be hit or the baby was hit she was all covered with glass i tried getting my wife out first i moved to bed outside and then i started helping the nurses and doctors to get them get them up amazingly both the baby george and his mother are fine all around the city moments of life moments of celebration were shattered israel who's a doctor had come back to lebanon from the states to get married she too was posing for her wedding photos when she was knocked off her feet by the force of the blast i i was shocked i was i was wondering what happened am i going to die how um how i'm going to die i've been preparing for my big day like for two weeks i was so happy like all the other girls i'm getting married my parents gonna be happy seeing me in a white dress i'm gonna i'm i'll be looking like a princess on everything [Music] from [Music] foreign this is what's left of a neighborhood known for its nightlife many of the buildings here have balconies that overlook the port of beirut so people would have been standing on their balconies or near their windows stretching their necks to catch a glimpse of the fire when the blast struck if you were here when this happened where you were standing would have made the difference between life and death between a superficial or a very serious injury [Music] another bbc reporter was in the office on tuesday night doing an interview over the internet it was a close shave for mariam taumy though she is all right and so many others aren't the explosion wounded thousands of people and hospitals are really struggling to cope lebanese people are famously resilient this shows how strong the lebanese are says the man filming this is are people who've been through so much who've learned to look after themselves so as they try to pick up the pieces they're working together to help each other with little faith in their government to do the job but what now for the country lebanon is already in crisis on multiple fronts this catastrophic explosion has scarred not just the city's skyline but the psyche of a nation it's become a symbol of all that's rotten in the political system and it's left lebanese people wondering how they're going to get over this and how much death destruction and despair one country can take

Channel: BBC News

Views: 1,816,317

Keywords: bbc, bbc news, news

Id: pG7mHUnW06Q

Length: 8min 5sec (485 seconds)

Published: Wed Aug 12 2020