A crowd gathers around the woman who jumped off of the Bourj Hammoud bridge in Beirut, April 20, 2023. (Credit: Screenshot from a video shared on social networks)
BEIRUT — A woman jumped off the Bourj Hammoud bridge in the city's eastern suburb Thursday. She survived the incident, a senior source in the Internal Security Forces confirmed to L'Orient-Le Jour.
A video circulating on social networks showed the victim first positioning herself for some time at the bridge's edge before finally jumping.
Several people tried to approach her to convince her not to jump and a crowd gathered beneath the bridge to try to catch her.
Two men also ran up with large cloths to try to cushion the impact.
After the woman jumped, a group of people tried to catch her, but she hit the ground. The woman survived the jump and was taken to the hospital, according to the police source.
Contacted by L'Orient-Le Jour, the director of the Lebanese Red Cross Georges Kettaneh could not immediately provide details on this incident. The president of the municipality of Bourj Hammoud was not immediately available for comment.
Suicidal thoughts among young people have risen since 2019, as Lebanon continues to sinks into unprecedented economic crisis and suffer the aftereffects of the Covid-19 pandemic and the Aug. 4 Beirut port explosion.