The Lebanese bride who was rocked by the massive blast in Beirut while posing for photographs on her wedding day, has spoken out about her terrifying ordeal.
Israa Seblani, a 29-year-old doctor working in the United States was seen posing in a beautiful white gown for the camera before the shoot was interrupted by the massive explosion.
After the explosion, it was learned that Israa who arrived in Beirut three weeks earlier to prepare for her wedding, helped to check on the injured nearby, before fleeing central Beirut’s Saifi square to safety.
She and her husband Ahmad Subeih, 34, a businessman in Beirut, later spoke with Reuters about the terrifying ordeal.
“I have been preparing for my big day for two weeks and I was so happy like all other girls, ‘I am getting married’. My parents are going to be happy seeing me in a white dress, I will be looking like a princess,” she told Reuters.
“What happened during the explosion here — there is no word to explain … I was shocked, I was wondering what happened, am I going to die? How am I going to die?“
“We started to walk around and it was extremely sad, it was not describable the devastation and the sound of the explosion,” Subeih said. “We are still in shock … I have never heard anything similar to the sound of this explosion.”
“I feel so sad about what happened to other people, about what happened to Lebanon,” added Seblani. “When I woke up and saw the damage that happened to Beirut, the one thing I said was thank God we are still alive.”
After the blast, she and her husband manage to carry on with their celebrations.
“My husband told me to continue, we can’t stop. I was like okay, why not, we continue. I was not living the moment actually, I was like walking, my face was smiling, my lips were smiling, that’s it, not more. Then we went to have a dinner.”
He recalls entering the damaged hotel on Wednesday to retrieve their belongings and passports.
“The scene in the room was unbelievable,” Subeih said.
Subeih is currently waiting for a visa to the United States so he can join his wife, who has admitted that living in Lebanon after Tuesday’s blast is not an option.
“There is a lot of damage, many people were killed and wounded. But also if I want to look at us, myself, my husband, the photographer — how we escaped unharmed, I thank God for protecting us.
“This alone makes me feel optimistic and to keep the joy of the occasion that I came here to celebrate.”
The massive explosion rocked Lebanese capital Beirut on Tuesday, August 4, killing 135 people and injuring more than 5000. The explosion also destroyed several buildings and vehicles.
It has been reported that a welder ignited 2,700 tons of explosive chemicals which was stored in a warehouse without safety measures since 2014.
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