A video of a bride in her wedding dress is going viral today after the videographer filming the wedding also captured the explosion in Beirut, Lebanon. Talking to the press, the bride has since said she’s ‘happy to be alive’.
The explosion in a warehouse in Beirut port was caused by ammonium nitrate – a fertiliser in agriculture that can also be used as an explosive – which was left in the building for six years after it was unloaded from a ship that was impounded in 2013. The blast killed 135 people and injured more than 5,000.
While Dr. Israa Seblani, 29, got married close enough to the blast to capture it on camera, luckily none of her wedding party were harmed. Recording her wedding video moments before the blast, the harrowing footage shows Seblani posing in a wedding dressed before being rocked backwards by the explosion as the camera pans their now shattering surroundings.
With the video now going viral, Seblani is talking to the press about the aftermath of the explosion. ‘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?’ Seblani continued.
As the footage shows she and husband Ahmad Subeih, 34, hurrying off, the couple explained that they went to check on injured people nearby before feeling to central Beirut’s Saifi square for safety. Her husband then convinced her to continue their wedding celebrations there.
‘My husband told me to continue, we can’t stop,’ she explained. ‘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.’
Witnessing all the devastation, Seblani said only her gratitude at being alive allows her to look back on the wedding day with joy. ‘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,’ she said.
‘This alone makes me feel optimistic and to keep the joy of the occasion that I came here to celebrate.’
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