Girl, 3, dies in Beirut blast three days after being ripped from her mum’s arms as she watched fire from flat window
A THREE-YEAR-OLD girl has died in Beirut three days after the explosion ripped her from her mum’s arms.
Little Alexandra Naggear died in hospital from her injuries as she’s been revealed as the latest victim in the devastating blast in Lebanon.
Toddler Alexandra rushed to the window in the high-rise flat where she lived to watch the port blaze with her family.
When the first explosion hit, her mum Tracy picked her up and ran away from the glass trying to shield her.
But the impact of the second blast was so powerful it ripped little Alexandra from the 35-year-old’s arms.
Her parents then frantically dug her out from the rubble.
Alexandra’s grandad Michel Awwad, 60, told the Daily Mail: “My daughter said she saw a huge grey object falling from the sky and she started screaming for them to run inside.
“She was trying to cover Alexandra, she was holding her daughter and trying to cover her.
MUM’S HEARTACHE
“But the pressure of the explosion was so intense and she couldn’t keep hold of her and they flew inside the house.”
Mr Awwad thought his granddaughter may have hit her head on a piano or a door.
Her parents tried to get to her to the nearest hospital on a motorbike, but they had to find another after it had been hit in the blast.
Mr Awwad said of Alexandra: “She was a very smart girl, it’s so sad it ended like this.”
Tracy suffered broken ribs and she needed more than a dozen stitches to her face.
Alexandra’s father Paul, 36, has said Alexandra was “not a martyr, she is a victim”.
Mr Naggear, who owns a digital marketing and consultancy business, told the government in a TV interview: “You killed us inside our homes.
“Renounce your parties and unite to overthrow the system .”
At least 158 people have died after 2,750 tonnes of highly explosive ammonium nitrate in a warehouse went up in flames.
One policeman was killed and the Red Cross said more than 170 people were injured in clashes.
Protests have flared in Beirut after the explosion which killed 158 people, injured 6,000 and left 300,000 homeless.
Anti-government protests have seen demonstrators hurl rocks at security forces blocking a road near parliament.
Information Minister Manal Abdel Samad said she would resign, citing the explosion and the failure of the government to carry out reforms.
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Those protests were the biggest since October when thousands of people took to the streets to demand an end to corruption, bad governance and mismanagement.
About 10,000 people gathered at Martyrs’ Square, which was transformed into a battle zone in the evening between police and protesters who tried to break down a barrier along a road leading to parliament.
Some demonstrators stormed government ministries and the Association of Lebanese Banks.