Watch: Closest footage yet of Beirut blasts from apartment balcony opposite port

Ismaeel Naar, Al Arabiya English Wednesday 05 August 2020

The closest footage of the devastating blasts that rocked Beirut a day earlier has emerged, according to live video shot by two Lebanese citizens living in an apartment opposite the port where the explosions erupted.

The footage, shot by an unidentified woman and another man named Imad, appeared to have been shot from an apartment’s balcony opposite the hanger which exploded due to ammonium nitrate on Tuesday.

“So unfortunate, hopefully, nothing happened to anyone, dear God. Dear God, hopefully, no one is harmed. Can’t they extinguish it? Those two have to escape But there’s no one inside,” the unidentified woman can be heard saying while smoke was billowing from the first smaller explosion at the port.

The two can be heard joking with each other about being the only one’s live recording the incident, with the man, Imad, mistakenly calling the location of the fire at Beirut’s airport instead of the seaport.

Moments later, a loud sound can be heard in the background, alerting the two to the severity of the situation when the second explosion erupted.

Read more:

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The two Lebanese citizens, unseen in the video’s entirety, seem to have been blown from the impact of the second explosion, their camera lying on the ground. No further conversations or sound can be heard from the two.

The fate of the two persons who caught the moment is not yet known.

The number of deaths in the Beirut blasts continued to rise on Wednesday, with the latest figures at 135 deaths, around 5,000 wounded, Lebanon’s Health Minister Hamad Hassan said Wednesday.

Last Update: Thursday, 06 August 2020 KSA 08:12 - GMT 05:12