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2 Filipinos die in twin Beirut blasts: DFA

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ABS-CBN News

<div class="embed-wrap"><figure data-feedback="fb:likes,fb:comments"><img src="http://sa.kapamilya.com/absnews/abscbnnews/media/2020/afp/08/05/20200805-beirut-blast-afp.jpg"/><figcaption>Lebanese firefighters work at the scene of an explosion in the Lebanese capital Beirut on Aug. 4, 2020. -Two huge explosion rocked the Lebanese capital Beirut, wounding dozens of people, shaking buildings and sending huge plumes of smoke billowing into the sky. Lebanese media carried images of people trapped under rubble, some bloodied, after the massive explosions, the cause of which was not immediately known. Anwar Amro, AFP</figcaption></figure></div>MANILA (5th UPDATE) - At least 2 Filipinos were among some 100 people killed when twin explosions devastated Beirut&#x27;s port and shook distant buildings across the Lebanese capital, the Department of Foreign Affairs said Wednesday. The 2 Filipino household service workers died inside their employers&#x27; homes when the explosions occurred. At least 8 other Filipinos were injured and 12 remained missing, the DFA said, citing information from the Embassy. Of those missing, 11 are seafarers and one is an injured household service worker, DFA Undersecretary Sarah Arriola said.The shockwave from the massive blast was also felt at the Philippine Embassy in Beirut, 20 minutes by car from the blast site. All Embassy staff are safe and accounted for, she added. “We were told that they also felt the shockwave so talagang yumanig talaga ang Embassy. So ganoon kalakas talaga ang explosion. So kahit talagang wala ka sa kalsada at that time, tatamaan ka eh. Kasi marami doon nabasag,” Arriola said.(We were told that they also felt the shockwave, the embassy shook, that&#x27;s how powerful the explosion was. Even if you were not on the street, you would have been hit. It also shattered many things.)A repatriation flight is being mounted to bring home Filipinos with exit visas and the remains of migrant workers by weekend at the earliest or next week at the latest, she added.The agency is ready to provide aid and has coordinated with local authorities to find the missing Filipinos while the victims&#x27; families will be given assistance, Arriola said.Lebanon is home to some 31,916 Filipinos, of whom more than 10,000 are undocumented migrants. Lebanon&#x27;s Prime Minister Hassan Diab said that 2,750 tons of agricultural fertilizer ammonium nitrate that had been stored for years in a portside warehouse had blown up, sparking &quot;a disaster in every sense of the word.&quot;Bloodied and dazed wounded people stumbled among the debris, glass shards and burning buildings in central Beirut as the Lebanese Red Cross reported over 100 dead and 4,000 injured across wide parts of the country&#x27;s biggest city. &quot;What happened today will not pass without accountability,&quot; said Diab. &quot;Those responsible for this catastrophe will pay the price.&quot;General Security chief Abbas Ibrahim earlier said the &quot;highly explosive material&quot; had been confiscated years earlier and stored in the warehouse, just minutes walk from Beirut&#x27;s shopping and nightlife districts.The blasts were so massive they shook the entire city and could be heard throughout the small country, and as far away as Nicosia on the eastern Mediterranean island of Cyprus, 240 kilometers away. The explosions also dealt extensive damage to the Baabda Palace, the official residence of the Lebanese president.English teacher Mariane Bou Nader said she was jolted from her sleep when her bed started shaking. With her family in tow, she quickly rushed to the corridor of her building. A moment later, a huge explosion was heard.“In Lebanon, there’s always been this history of explosions, people being assassinated because of the political situation. We thought that it was one of those (incidents). We were really scared and we were really worried,” she told ABS-CBN News.“May konting sira nga dito sa bahay namin. Pero hindi katulad do’n sa iba na talagang nasira at nabasag,” said Arlene Torreda, a Filipina housewife married to a Lebanese. (Our house sustained slight damage, others&#x27; were more severe.)“Sabi naman ng iba sinadya daw po ito. Pero sana po ay hindi, at para wala pong mangyaring anumang kaguluhan pa dito sa Lebanon.”(Some say this was done on purpose. We hope it wasn&#x27;t so there won&#x27;t be more trouble here in Lebanon.)A soldier at the port, where relatives of the missing scrambled for news of their loved ones, told Agence France-Presse: &quot;It&#x27;s a catastrophe inside. There are corpses on the ground. Ambulances are still lifting the dead.&quot;&quot;It was like an atomic bomb,&quot; said Makrouhie Yerganian, a retired schoolteacher in her mid-70s who has lived near the port for decades. &quot;I&#x27;ve experienced everything, but nothing like this before,&quot; even during the country&#x27;s 1975-1990 civil war, she said. &quot;All the buildings around here have collapsed.&quot;Her 91-year-old uncle, who lived in the same building, was wounded in the blast and later died.AFP correspondents across the city saw shop and apartment windows blown out and streets covered with broken glass. Photos posted online even showed damage to the inside of Beirut airport&#x27;s terminal, some nine kilometers from the explosion.Hospitals already struggling with the country&#x27;s coronavirus outbreak were overwhelmed by the influx of wounded people and the country&#x27;s Red Cross called for urgent blood donations.<div class="embed-wrap"><figure data-feedback="fb:likes,fb:comments"><img src="http://sa.kapamilya.com/absnews/abscbnnews/media/2020/tnyt/08/05/beirut.jpg"/><figcaption>A plume of smoke rises over Beirut, Lebanon following a powerful explosion on Tuesday, Aug. 4, 2020. Ben Hubbard, The New York Times </figcaption></figure></div><div>&#x27;WE SAW THE MUSHROOM&#x27; </div>As the national defense council declared Beirut a disaster zone, Diab appealed to Lebanon&#x27;s allies to &quot;stand by&quot; the country and &quot;help us treat these deep wounds.&quot;Condolences poured in from across the world with Gulf nations, the United States and even Lebanon&#x27;s arch foe Israel offering to send aid.<ul class="op-related-articles">	<li><a href="https://news.abs-cbn.com/news/08/05/20/locsin-hopes-to-send-ph-help-to-lebanon-after-twin-blasts">Locsin hopes to send PH help to Lebanon after twin blasts</a></li></ul>AFP video footage showed areas of near-complete devastation, with cars flipped onto their roofs like children&#x27;s toys, warehouses flattened and survivors drenched from head to toe in their own blood. &quot;We heard an explosion, then we saw the mushroom,&quot; said a Beirut resident who witnessed the second deafening explosion from her balcony in the city&#x27;s Mansourieh district. &quot;The force of the blast threw us backwards into the apartment.&quot;An AFP correspondent at the scene minutes after said every shop in the Hamra commercial district had sustained damage, with entire storefronts destroyed and many cars wrecked.A huge blaze sent up black smoke from the port area, as helicopters dumped water on burning buildings.A ship moored off the port was on fire, and the blasts also damaged a vessel deployed with United Nations peacekeeping force UNIFIL and injured some of its personnel.<div>&#x27;LIKE AN EARTHQUAKE&#x27; </div>Hundreds immediately shared their shock and grief on social media.&quot;Buildings are shaking,&quot; tweeted one resident, while another wrote: &quot;An enormous, deafening explosion just engulfed Beirut. Heard it from miles away.&quot;Online footage from a Lebanese newspaper office showed blown out windows, scattered furniture and demolished interior panelling.The explosions hit a country already reeling from its worst economic crisis in decades which has left nearly half of the population in poverty, as well as from the coronavirus pandemic.Lebanon&#x27;s economy has collapsed in recent months, with the local currency plummeting, businesses closing en masse and poverty soaring at the same alarming rate as unemployment. Charity Save the Children said &quot;the incident could not have occurred at a worse time.&quot; The explosions came three days before a UN tribunal&#x27;s verdict on the murder of former Lebanese premier Rafic Hariri, who was killed in a huge 2005 truck bomb attack. Four alleged members of the Shiite Muslim movement Hezbollah are on trial in absentia at the court in the Netherlands over the huge Beirut bombing that killed Sunni billionaire Hariri and 21 other people. A woman in the city center Tuesday told AFP the blast &quot;felt like an earthquake&quot; and &quot;bigger than the explosion in the assassination of Rafic Hariri in 2005.&quot;Israel’s Foreign Minister Gabi Ashkenazi denied the country&#x27;s involvement in the explosion, despite recent cross–border tensions between Hezbollah and Lebanon.The explosion, however, precedes a U.N.–backed court verdict this Friday on the 2005 death of former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri. -- With reports from Willard Cheng, Rhyse Furio, ABS-CBN Middle East News Bureau; and Agence France-Presse

MANILA (3rd UPDATE) - At least 2 Filipinos were among the 73 people killed when twin explosions devastated Beirut's port and shook distant buildings across the Lebanese capital, the Department of Foreign Affairs said Wednesday.

MANILA (3rd UPDATE) - At least 2 Filipinos were among the 73 people killed when twin explosions devastated Beirut's port and shook distant buildings across the Lebanese capital, the Department of Foreign Affairs said Wednesday.