Priest Flees for His Life as Beirut Explosion Rocks Church During Live-Stream

At around 6 pm local time on August 4th, a sudden and devastating explosion ripped through Lebanon’s capital city.

Filmed by a witness standing around 10km away from the blast, the mushroom-cloud explosion could be seen rocking nearby buildings, shattering windows, and demolishing everything in its path.

And, as they did, the realization of the severity of the situation began to slowly sink in.

Leaving nearly 300,000 people homeless.

But today, Lebanon’s health minister has said that at least seventy-eight people have died, and a further 4,000 people have suffered injuries.

But these hospitals were so overwhelmed that they were forced to turn wounded people away, including the American University Hospital. Patients were then transported to hospitals outside of Beirut because those in the city were at maximum capacity.

But, sadly, the death toll is expected to rise drastically within the next couple of days.

Many of us are wondering the same thing.

How did this happen?

How did such a devastating explosion occur right in the heart of the city, with next to no warning for its millions of residents?

But today, it has emerged that a huge cache of ammonium nitrate, an explosive compound commonly used in the construction of bombs, had been stored at the building in which the blast had occurred.

And was then placed at the explosion site, according to top Lebanese officials.

And it was this fire that is believed to have triggered the explosion of the ammunition.

In a televised statement, Prime Minister Diab was quoted as saying: “I will not relax until we find the responsible party for what happened, hold it accountable and apply the most serious punishments against it because it isn’t acceptable that a shipment of ammonium nitrate – estimated to be 2,750 tons – was in a depot for the past 6 years without precautionary measures being taken.”

People can be seen wandering around, dazed and disoriented, amongst the crumbling builds and smoking rubble.

A once vibrant and bustling metropolis now lays in smoke and tatters.

A priest carrying out a service was filmed fleeing for his life as the explosion caused his church, which is believed to have been located close to the explosion site, to collapse around him. And now, the footage has gone viral online.

And the camera begins to tremble.

And the priest suddenly springs to action.

And he collapses out of shot as the camera is knocked to the floor from the blast.

But a woman on Twitter claiming to know him has insisted that he is “alive and well.” You can watch the remarkable footage above.

Our thoughts go out to the people of Beirut during this devastating time.