LEBANON: Child spent more than 24 hours underneath heaps of debris after blast rocked Lebanese capital

Rescuers frantically digging through rubble after the enormous explosion in Beirut found a young girl alive, more than 24 hours after she was trapped in debris by the blast.

Video footage has emerged showing the moment the child was found and dragged from the rubble.

In the video, the torchlight of rescuers can be seen picking out the dark hair of the youngster, who appears to have been stuck up to her waist in the debris of a collapsed building in the Lebanese capital.

The girl waves her hand and can be heard crying as the adults lean in to try and pull her from the wreckage to safety.

The blast on Tuesday evening killed at least 145 people and injured more than 5,000, causing billions of dollars of damage to the capital of a city already in the grips of an economic crisis.

Local media reported that the video of the girl’s rescue dates from Wednesday night, meaning the unidentified girl spent over 24 hours alone stuck under debris after the explosion ripped through the city centre.

A video of the liturgy shows how a priest in Beirut died after a powerful explosion

As the rescuers stretch to begin to pull her to safety one can be heard exclaiming “God is great!” in Arabic.

It was unclear if the girl had suffered any injuries or what her current condition was.

There have been other stories of miraculous rescues emerging from Lebanon as makeshift rescue teams have begun combing through the wreckage looking for survivors.

One port worker was blown out to sea by the gigantic blast but was reportedly found alive 30 hours later.

The EU has dispatched its own search and rescue team, including specialised equipment and dogs, to Lebanon to help find any remaining survivors.

And the clean-up operation is only just beginning for hundreds of thousands of others, with an estimated 300,000 Beirutis displaced from their homes by the destruction of the blast.

Independent / Balkantimes.press