Bumper-to-bumper traffic caused by the Lebanese army’s preparations for an Independence Day parade trapped tens of thousands of people in their vehicles on Friday, causing public outrage despite the military issuing an apology.
In a scenario repeated in November each year, road closures caused delays lasting more than five hours for many of the capital's commuters.
The army leadership apologized for the traffic in a statement shared on Twitter, asking for citizens’ “understanding.”
In one incident, a dispute among two people trapped in the gridlock turned into a knife attack near Electricite du Liban headquarters in Beirut’s Mar Mikhael area.
One of them was seriously injured.
A bus also plunged off a bridge into a side road in Antelias, a northern suburb of Beirut, further complicating matters and causing chaos in the districts alongside.
A similar traffic crisis is expected on Monday, when the military plans to carry out the final preparations for Independence Day celebrations set to take place on Nov. 22.
Although the Traffic Management Center said two weeks ago that the Lebanese capital could witness heavy traffic, most commuters failed to heed the warning.
Traders and shop owners in Antelias, the nearby town of Dbayeh, and Beirut’s Hamra thoroughfare, lamented the situation because of a lack of customers at a crucial time of the year when major sales as part of Black Friday have been announced.
“Our hope for profits on this day has been crushed,” Randa Sarkis, a shop owner, told Asharq Al-Awsat.
“I will contact my customers and inform them that I have moved the major sales from Friday to Saturday,” said Nayla Samaha, another shop owner.
“Most shops remained closed until 1 pm today (Friday) because their owners failed to arrive on time,” she said.
