A general view of downtown Amman during the sandstorm.
A Palestinian man wearing a mask to protect his face from the dust as he walks past the Dome of the Rock mosque in the Al Aqsa Mosque compound in Jerusalem during the sandstorm yesterday.
DPA
Beirut
The worst sandstorm in years blanketed parts of Lebanon and Syria yesterday, leaving at least eight people dead and sending hundreds to hospital.
Six people were killed in Syria, including two children, a monitoring group said.
In Lebanon, two people died and some 750 others were hospitalised with breathing difficulties and lung damage, the health ministry said.
The massive storm also affected Jordan and Israel.
Governments warned the ill and the elderly, as well as pregnant women and children, to avoid strenuous activities.
The Meteorological Department at Beirut’s Rafik Hariri International Airport described the storm as “unprecedented” in Lebanon’s modern history.
In neighbouring Syria, the sandstorm engulfed areas of the eastern city Deir al-Zour. Hospitals reportedly stopped admitting patients because of the high number of people suffering from breathing problems.
The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the hospital had run out of oxygen cylinders.
The storm also halted air strikes in central and northern Syria, said Rami Abdel Rahman, the head of the monitoring group.
The sandstorm originated from a low depression in north-eastern Syria, carrying sand from the desert across the region. Page 11
