Beirut blast: Bike shop owner returns to scene of where he filmed mushroom cloud and blast wave

Beirut blast: Bike shop owner returns to scene of where he filmed mushroom cloud and blast wave

The Beirut bike shop owner who captured on mobile phone the moment a huge blast rocked the Lebanese capital, killing at least 100 people, has returned to the scene this morning.

Karim Sokhn, who owns the Bike Kitchen shop in the central Ashrafieh district of the city, heard an explosion on Tuesday afternoon (August 5) while fixing a bicycle.

His shop is on the top floor of a mall, on the same level as a car park overlooking the city.

After this first explosion, he went out to the car park and happened to film the moment a second blast struck: in that video, also uploaded to Newsflare, Sokhn captured the mushroom cloud, the visible blast wave and the intense boom that followed.

Then dark red smoke rises from the explosion, engulfing the sky.

His shop is around 1km from the epicentre of the blast and suffered damage.

Now, on Wednesday morning, Sokhn returned to his shop to survey the damage and to the car park where he filmed yesterday’s video.

He gathered his thoughts in an emotional video seen here.

He says: “I heard the first blast and I started filming and the second I pressed record to film the blast, the second [blast] came out.

It was like something I’ve never seen in my life.

It’s horrible.

This certain district in Beirut has completely collapsed, hospitals are full, people are sitting on the streets.

I wish this would never ever happen to anyone.

I wish a fast recovery for everyone.” More than 200,000 people have reportedly lost their homes.