It was 6pm on Tuesday (Aug 4) when Mr Georges Jabbour was at the National Evangelical Church of Beirut, helping out at his cousin’s wedding …
It was 6pm on Tuesday (Aug 4) when Mr Georges Jabbour was at the National Evangelical Church of Beirut, helping out at his cousin’s wedding ceremony which was due to start in an hour. The priest had just arrived at the church, about 2km from the Beirut port, when there was an explosion. It seemed like a localized car bomb. “We are unfortunately used to car bombs and wars. I first thought it was a car bomb. But when I saw the pink-ish smoke, I knew it was something else,” Mr Jabbour,35, said. Moments later, there was a second more powerful explosion. The ensuing shock wave shook the ground, shattered glasses and damaged buildings. It was so powerful, the seismological monitors registered it as the equivalent of a magnitude 3.3 earthquake, and tremors were felt in Cyprus, a country 250km away. By the next day, at least 137 were confirmed killed in Beirut and 4,000 people injured. Many more were left homeless overnight. “It was like a war zone,” said Mr Mahmoud Marwan Zahraun,25, an electrical engineer who was at that time in his office in the Raoucheh neighborhood just 3km west of the blast site. “Dead bodies everywhere and for a few days, the debris remained on the streets. Many of my friends were injured by the flying debris.” The National Evangelical Church of Beirut, situated in central district, was relatively unscathed. But the priest was injured and rushed to the hospital, and the wedding had to be cancelled. “Glass shattered behind me but I was considered lucky. My friends were not as lucky. A lot of them live in Gemmayzeh and Mar Mikhael, two neighborhoods right in front of the port and they are homeless now. “Many of them were injured too,” said Mr Jabbour. The government has arrested dozens of people and focused its investigation on the 2,750 tonnes of ammonium nitrate stored in the warehouse at the port prior to the explosion. But conspiracy theories about a nuclear bomb or a military attack blamed on the United States, Israel or even militant group Hezbollah have spread all over Lebanese social media. Beirut-based tech entrepreneur Sarah Abdallah,31, said she was at her home 10km from the blast site when she heard what sounded like a warplane flying overhead moments before the blast. While these claims are unproven – the authorities in Israel and Lebanon have dismissed such suggestions – many Lebanese continue to cast doubt on the official version of events that tragic day.
