An explosion ripped through Beirut in Lebanon on Tuesday injuring thousands and killing 70. A lot of horrifying footage has emerged since, including one of a BBC journalist in Beirut who is in the middle of a virtual interview when the blast happens, knocking her to the floor.
BBC News Arabic journalist in Beirut, Maryam Toumi, was conducting a video interview with Faisal Al-Aseel, project manager at the Moroccan Agency for Sustainable Energy. Maryam stops mid-sentence as she hears a loud noise, after which the walls begin to shake as she tries to get up off the chair and make sense of what is happening.
Seconds later, a much bigger explosion happens, which knocks the device that she was filming on to the ground, after which we see glass falling. Maryam can be heard screaming, as her interviewees look on, horrified. We hear an alarm going off ominously in the background as she picks herself up.
لحظة #انفجار_المرفأ أثناء مقابلة أجرتها مريم التومي، الصحفية في مكتب بي بي سي نيوز عربي، مع فيصل الأصيل، مدير المشاريع في الوكالة المغربية للطاقة المستدامة. (تحذير: الفيديو يحوي مشاهد صادمة).#انفجار_بيروت #بيروت #Beirut pic.twitter.com/N6A4UszkgY
— BBC News عربي (@BBCArabic) August 4, 2020
The massive explosion flattened much of the city's port, damaging buildings across the capital and sending a giant mushroom cloud into the sky. More than 70 people were killed and over 3,000 injured, with bodies buried in the rubble, officials said.
It was not clear what caused the blast, which struck with the force of a 3.5 magnitude earthquake, according to Germany's geosciences center GFZ, and was heard and felt as far away as in Cyprus more than 200 kilometers (180 miles) across the Mediterranean.
Lebanon's interior minister said it appeared that a large cache of ammonium nitrate in the port had detonated.
The sudden devastation overwhelmed a country already struggling with both the COVID-19 pandemic and a severe economic and financial crisis.
For hours after the explosion, the most destructive in all of Lebanon's troubled history, ambulances rushed in from around the country to carry away the wounded.
For blocks around the port, bloodied residents staggered through streets lined with overturned cars and littered with rubble from shattered buildings.
Windows and doors were blown out kilometers away, including at the city's only international airport.
With PTI inputs