A destroyed building in the southern suburbs of Beirut. (Credit: Mohammad Yassin/L'Orient Today)
BEIRUT — The offices of the Qatari television network Al-Jazeera, along with those of the Norwegian Embassy in Lebanon, were evacuated Thursday after the building manager received warning calls.
An Al-Jazeera Arabic journalist told our publication that the caller's identity was not confirmed. He said the network's offices, located in downtown Beirut, had been evacuated.
A Lebanese security source and another diplomatic source confirmed to Reuters that the calls were found out to be fake.
The Norwegian Embassy in Beirut, housed in the same building, was also evacuated following a bomb threat, according to the Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs. "We can confirm that the building where the Norwegian Embassy in Beirut is located received a bomb threat today," the ministry said in a statement emailed to AFP.
"Only a few Norwegian diplomats are currently in Beirut, and all embassy staff are safe," it added.
Earlier in the day, the headquarters of the Court of Accounts in the nearby Kantari neighborhood had also been briefly evacuated following a threat call. Organizations operating in the Hamra area also temporarily suspended their activities.
Al-Mayadeen, a pro-Hezbollah network, has relocated some of its staff to Baghdad, Iraq since the conflict between Hezbollah and Israel escalated, an employee of the network told our publication.
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