大象传媒

Lebanese international Edmond Chehade recalls being caught up in the Beirut blast whilst driving home from training with a team-mate.

Speaking to Mani Djazmi on the World Football podcast, Chehade described how close he came to being seriously hurt: 鈥淚 looked to my left and saw fire. After five minutes, we heard a small explosion and after another three seconds we heard a big explosion.

鈥淚t was the first time I saw this in my life, and I felt a wind. The wind was coming towards us, and the car jumped, like it was flying, about a metre and then went down again. Everything was broken: The windows & doors. It was like watching a movie.

鈥淚f I was five minutes late, maybe I wouldn鈥檛 have survived. My car was about 400-600 meters away, but before that I was very near (to the blast site) 鈥� about 100 meters.鈥�

Lebanon's government has blamed the huge blast that devastated parts of Beirut on the detonation of 2,750 tonnes of ammonium nitrate stored at the city's port.

Photo: A picture shows the devastated Beirut port on August 7, 2020, three days after a massive blast there shook the Lebanese capital. (Credit: AFP via Getty Images)

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