An Irish charity worker whose house was destroyed in Beirut said he is now considering moving his family back home.
Colin Lee, from Drogheda, Co Louth, has lived in Lebanon for 13 years working for the human rights group Plan International.
He told how his daughters – Eva, seven, and four-year-old Bruna – were terrified as they took shelter from the explosion which decimated the city last week.
He said: “The kids were crying and were panicky.
“Our seven-year-old was going, ‘Can you promise me there isn’t going to be another one [explosion]?’
“So it was just fear and panic.
“They were very lucky. Where my seven-year-old was, the window went out and part of the wall went out.
“And where Bruna was she was between windows.
“All around them there was debris and glass and there wasn’t a scratch on either of them.”
Thousands of people have been left injured in the explosion which occurred in the port where it’s understood a huge store of ammonium nitrate caused the disaster.
Colin said: “I don’t think we see a long-term future here and [the explosion] rocked it for us.”
