Bleeding from a gash in her head, with wet hair and hastily dressed, Reuters producer Ayat Basma rushed into the Beirut streets to film some of the first images of the damage caused by Tuesday’s port explosion
- Imagine what it’s like to be flung to the floor by a gigantic explosion, dodge a falling wardrobe in your home, be cut in the forehead by flying glass - and then brush off the blood and start filming the news.
“I was lying on the ground, and all I could hear was the sirens of the car alarms,” said Basma, who had taken a day off work on Tuesday. “I thought, I don’t want to die.”Bleeding from a gash in her head, with wet hair and hastily dressed, Basma rushed into the street and began filming with the only camera she had at hand - her smartphone.
“Everything was down, the neighbours were shouting, the kids were crying,” said Basma. “All you could hear was the sound of cars driving on smashed glass.”As journalists, we typically document and observe through a lens or behind a notebook. But this week, our colleagues in the Reuters Beirut bureau, our regional headquarters, were catapulted into the news even as they rushed to cover it. Several spent hours on the streets, while their families at home were injured and in shock.
Photographer Mohamed Azakir thought it was an earthquake when he first felt the ground shaking. When he reached the port area, there were bodies everywhere. He saw a man pinned from the torso downwards under a car, covered in dirt and blood. Azakir thought the man was dead, but he opened his eyes and waved his arms when the photographer approached.reut.
“Are you OK?” screamed Bureau Chief Tom Perry, who had also sought refuge under the desk. He too tried alerting editors, and calling his wife and son. “We need to get out of here.”
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