Architects and designers in Beirut have shared their first-hand accounts of the huge explosion that destroyed a large part of the city on Tuesday, with one describing the devastation as "beyond an apocalypse".
"I thought it was a tsunami or a bomb, or even a nuclear blast," said architect Lina Ghotmeh, who witnessed the massive explosion from a waterside cafe.
"No one can possibly imagine the scale of the disaster, it is beyond an apocalypse, the entire city is in rubbles," said co-founder of design studio T Sakhi, Tessa Sakhi, who was at home when the explosion happened.
"PSLab Beirut HQ is gone, completely wiped," added Rania Abboud, communications director of lighting designer PSLab.
Large parts of Beirut including Lian Ghotmeh's Stone Garden project were damaged in the explosion. Photo is by Lina Ghotmeh The explosion at a warehouse where 2,750 tons of ammonium nitrate was being stored on 4 August caused widespread destruction in the Lebanese capital.
It is estimated to have killed 149 people and injured more than 5,000. Local architect Jean-Marc Bonfils was among the dead.
A number of buildings in the city were also destroyed or badly damaged, among them Pierre Neema's 1965 headquarters for power company Électricité du Liban and the Sursock Museum.
"I honestly still don't believe we are alive"
"Since it happened by the seaside, the explosion was very powerful," Ghotmeh told Dezeen. "You could feel t...