BEIRUT — It seemed like all hope was lost.
But after 15 hours buried under the rubble of his home in Beirut, Imad Atar was miraculously pulled out alive by a civil defense team Wednesday, punching the air weakly with joy as crowds clapped, cried and cheered in an emotional display.
Drenched in sweat from the August sun, the team of volunteers used pickaxes and shovels to dig Atar out from under the rubble of his home in the Geitawi neighborhood, in the east of the Lebanese capital.
A roar of joy reverberated through the streets as the volunteers screamed "he's alive!" pulling him out along with items from his former home — a pair of slippers, children's toys and jewelry.
The rescue team lifted Atar onto a stretcher and into a nearby Red Cross ambulance amid cheers. A brief moment of joy in a city in mourning.
Atar is one of the survivors of an explosive blast that rocked Beirut on Tuesday, killing at least 100 people and injuring thousands, according to the Lebanese Red Cross.
Although the exact trigger of the blast remains unclear, tons of ammonium nitrate stored at a warehouse at the Beirut port have been blamed, Lebanese Prime Minister Hassan Diab said, promising a full investigation.
As day broke, millions woke up to near-apocalyptic scenes as Beirut was shrouded in smoke and dust from the deadly explosion.
Whole apartments facades had fallen, windows blown-out and furniture strewn in the streets of many neighborhoods. While hundreds of dazed and blood-soaked Lebanese — many used to catastrophe having lived through decades of civil war — fled to the nearby mountains for safety last night.
Overwhelmed hospitals in the capital turned people away, as scores of people nursed injuries from theblast that was heard as far away as Cyprus.
Many Beirutis expressed anger and sadness as they tried to digest the shock.
"Our shop is destroyed, our home is destroyed, our life is destroyed. Why are we stuck in this country?" said wedding store owner Mohamed Abidis, dejected and distraught.
"Even in the civil war we didn’t see anything like this. Not in this neighborhood," he told NBC News, referring to the conflict that tore the country apart from 1975 to 1990.
Videos show shocking moment of Beirut explosion
Aug. 4, 202001:06Some pointed the finger at Lebanon's beleaguered government, as the extent of the destruction came to light.
"I'd almost rather this be an act of terrorism rather than an act of negligence," said a Beirut bar-owner who spoke on the condition of anonymity for fear of persecution. "At least in that sense there would be somebody else to blame for once."
Others took a practical approach. As volunteers flocked to downtown Beirut, only yesterday the trendy heart of the capital, to sweep up debris and give out food and water in the August heat.
Images and videos were being feverishly circulated on social media with #PrayforLebanon trending on Wednesday, along with international outpourings of solidarity and grief. While the front pages of Lebanese newspapers depicted striking scenes of chaos and destruction.
Download the NBC News app for the latest on the Beirut explosion
"It really sounded like thunder. Then there was an enormous bang and I was blown backwards from the doorway ... Our door was ripped off its hinges," said Lizzie Porter, a journalist living in Beirut who initially mistook the blast for an earthquake.
"People here unfortunately are now used to this kind of very traumatic experience," she added.
The deadly blast came as Lebanon deals with an unprecedented economic crisis that has seen its currency lose 80 percent of its value and unemployment spiral, with fed-up citizens frequently taking to the streets in protests this year.
"It's mayhem here, honestly. I used to live in New York and I was in Manhattan on 9/11 and it’s the same there today — it’s the same feeling, the same smell," Hassan Sinno, 42, a construction company manager, told NBC News.
The governor of Beirut, Marwan Abboud, said on Wednesday the cost of the damage to the capital, already under economic pressure, could be between $3 billion and $5 billion, adding that the explosion had made at least 200,000 people homeless.
Offers of international aid from France to the United States and Middle East have poured in for the tiny country but more needs to be done said Samah Hadid, head of advocacy at the Norwegian Refugee Council, an NGO, who witnessed the blast in Beirut.
"Lebanon really needs support. Lebanese communities were already facing poverty, starvation and an economic crisis as well as the Covid pandemic — now this explosion adds so much more misery and suffering," Hadid said.
"The country is brought to its knees and can't cope with this catastrophe alone."
