A couple in Beirut, Lebanon, has discovered that life continues even as tragedy strikes.
A woman identified as Emmanuelle was ready to give birth on Tuesday, and doctors and nurses were wheeling her into a delivery room when an explosion rocked their city and hospital. Her husband Edmond captured the moment on video.
“All the ceiling was down,” Edmond told BBC. “I was looking around to check where’s my wife.”
The windows in their room at St. George Hospital were blown out completely, and Edmond said that his wife was covered in glass following the explosion. He helped her into the hall, and then assisted in getting the medical staff out of the room.
Thankfully, the couple and their new son George are safe and healthy, but Edmond said the experience wasn’t an easy one for his wife.
“She wasn’t just in shock. There was no medicine. It was like old-style labor,” he said.
The city of Beirut was ravaged by the Tuesday blast, and while its cause has not yet been confirmed, its impact has been plainly obvious. The city’s governor estimated that as many as 300,000 people were made homeless by the explosion. Recent estimates concluded that at least 135 people have died, and about 5,000 have been injured.
Experts at the University of Sheffield estimate that the blast likely carried around 10% of the power of an atomic bomb.
