In addition to countless deaths and injuries, the tragic Beirut explosion caused a significant number of people to lose all contact with their loved ones.
The Lebanese Army, aided by local and international teams and NGOs, commenced search and rescue operations right after the blast on August 4th. Since then, most of those reported missing have been found.
Today, there remain 6 missing individuals, the Lebanese Red Cross (LRC) told The961.
The data reported to the LRC since the blast indicates that “81 missing cases were reported in total, out of which 38 are deceased, 37 were located, And 6 are still missing.”
The missing are 4 Lebanese nationals and 2 Syrian nationals, the LRC added.
On Saturday, the Lebanese Army said that 7 people were still missing, mentioning an Egyptian national in addition to the above, and citing data submitted to the Internal Security Forces, in coordination with the LRC.
However, as LBCI later discovered, the said Egyptian national had, in fact, passed away and been buried without the knowledge of his family, before the explosion, and the family unknowingly reported him as missing after the blast.
On that note, there has been mention of one more person counted among those missing, but the Army explained that it’s not clear whether this person went missing as a result of the explosion or an unrelated incident.
Either way, the Army’s spokesman, Elias Aad, stressed on the weekend that “search and rescue operations will not stop until the missing are found.”
The 6 missing are believed to be Beirut Port employees and/or employees in the area surrounding it.