Winter storm throws life out of gear in Lebanon

Beirut: Lebanon was hit by a heavy winter storm on Saturday, disrupting flights at its international airport and destroying small training planes, an airport official said.

The winds, which reached 100 km/h, destroyed the four planes parked at Beirut's Rafik Hariri International Airport. The wind overturned some of the aircraft and rammed others into a nearby electricity pole, but no one was hurt.

Air traffic was affected with flights from Bahrain and another from Kuwait diverted to Syria.

The wind and heavy rain also hit telecom systems and caused traffic jams in the city. The storm is expected to last until tomorrow. Heavy snowfall was also reported at an altitude of 1,400 metres and more is expected tonight.

Other parts of the Middle East were also affected by bad weather yesterday.

Egypt closed 10 of its ports on the Red Sea and the Mediterranean yesterday because of sandstorms and high waves, officials said.

Eight of the closed ports — Port Tawfik, Adabiya, Zayteya, Sukhna, Ataka, Safaga, Hurghada and Nuwaiba — lie on the Red Sea while Alexandria and Dekheila lie on the Mediterranean.

Heavy winds also lashed Israel yesterday, knocking down power lines and trees and sweeping a 41-year-old Russian tourist into the sea as the country was hit by its first storm of the winter.

Several nature reserves in the southern Negev desert were shut because of the possibility of flash floods.The storm brings the first rain of the winter.

Air travel: UAE flights normal

The storm in Lebanon has not disrupted Emirates and Etihad Airways' operations to and from Beirut, the airlines said on Saturday.

"We have received no alerts from our network control on flights to and from Beirut," an Emirates spokeswoman said.

"There has been no delay so far in any flight to and from Beirut," an Etihad spokesman said.

— Himendra Mohan Kumar/Staff Reporter