Beirut explosion: Hero maid plucks baby to safety as blast rips through building

The girl plays while the woman vacuum cleans. Photo:Triangle News.

A quick-thinking maid scoops up a child in her arms and rushes out of the room as the Beirut explosion rocks the city in an amazing moment amid the tragedy. CCTV footage shows the heroic woman slowly vacuum cleaning as the little girl wanders across the play area just before "one of the biggest non-nuclear explosions of all time". And within a matter of seconds, window blinds rock forwards before the glass windows burst into smithereens from the shockwave of the blast. But with an incredible piece of quick-thinking, the maid quickly leans over and grabs the girl and pulls her close to her chest.

More than 100 people - at least 113 - were killed in the huge blast which wrought devastation in the capital of Lebanon. The cataclysmic explosion, caused by 2,750 tons of ammonium nitrate, left 4,000 people injured and the city resembling a scrapyard of destroyed buildings. The explosion was a fifth of the size of the Hiroshima nuclear bomb and is thought to have been triggered by fire sparked by a welder. Lebanese rescue workers searched for survivors in the mangled wreckage of buildings and investigators blamed negligence for the disaster. Up to 250,000 were left without homes fit to live in after shockwaves smashed building facades, sucked furniture out into streets and shattered windows miles inland. The death toll was expected to rise.