Workers and rescue teams gather at a factory for crushing soybeans and refining oils in Selaata after a young man drowned in a tank of soybean oil in a work accident, May 21, 2024. (Photo courtesy of Michel Hallak)
BEIRUT — A young man died on Tuesday after falling and drowning in a tank of soybean oil while working at a factory for crushing soybeans and refining oil, located on the outskirts of Selaata, North Lebanon, L'Orient Today's correspondent in the region reported.
Louay Haider Arif, a young man in his twenties, who is from the Jabal Mohsen area of Tripoli, died after falling into a tank of soybean oil. The Lebanese Civil Defense and the Lebanese Red Cross rushed to the scene and tried to save him. Despite their efforts, he had died by the time they were able to retrieve him. His body was transferred to Batroun Governmental Hospital.
It was not immediately clear how the accident took place, but security services initiated investigations to uncover the circumstances surrounding the incident, which happened at a factory owned by the Societe Des Huiles Et Derives S.A.L.("Oil and Derivatives Company"), according to a source in the plant's management. The deceased was an employee of a maintenance company, not of the soybean factory itself, the same source told L'Orient Today.
Work accidents are common in Lebanon. On April 30, nine employees suffocated and died, on the eve of Labor Day, when a gas leak caused an explosion and uncontrollable fire in the kitchen of the newly opened Italian food shop, Pizza Secrets, in Beirut's Bechara al-Khoury area.
In August 2021, an explosion triggered by welding work being done in a water heater factory in southern Beirut killed four people.
Reporting contributed by Michel Hallak