Covid-19: Lebanon police raid internet cafe for breaking curfew
Cafe breaks rules by allowing children in secretly to play online games
Beirut: An internet café in Lebanon was raided for flouting the Cabinet-imposed coronavirus curfew. The cafe stealthily welcomed teenagers through a secred door to play online games.
Last week, a municipal police squad raided a café in Tripoli called ‘Gaming Zone’ after it kept a backside door open to allow customers despite keeping its front doors closed.
Gulf News has learnt that Tripoli’s Municipal Police issued a violation report to the owner and kicked out the teenaged players as part of implementing law procedures against violators breaking the government-imposed state of health emergency and calls for self-applied lockdown.
The squad reprimanded the teenagers and cautioned them to stay home and also seized expired food items stacked in a storeroom, according to Chief of Tripoli’s Police Municipality Warrant Officer Rabih Al Hafez.
Last Sunday morning, Lebanese citizens woke up to Lebanese Army helicopters hovering in the skies of Beirut and major cities and calling people to stay at home on loud speakers.
As part of the authorities’ measures to reduce corona’s outbreak and tightening up safety procedures, armed forces and police patrols were on ground to regulate the process of citizen’s urgent movements [essential shopping from groceries and pharmacies] and to halt unnecessary groupings.
Speaking to Gulf News, Al Hafez said he commissioned the police squad to ensure that the café was breaching the coronavirus curfew before raiding the place.
“An informant alerted us that the café was flouting the restrictions. The raid was documented on video. The teenagers had sneaked in from a backside door … they were smoking and playing video games. We reprimanded and instructed them to stay home. The café was slapped a legal warning. We sent samples of the seized food for laboratorial examination and closed the place. If the food turns out inedible then the café will be fined,” said Al Hafez who advised the public to stay home and safe for everyone’s sake.
In a televised address, Prime Minister Hassan Diab said on Saturday that coronavirus cases reached 230 despite calls for self-imposed home isolations.
Earlier the cabinet declared a state of health emergency and a list of corona restrictions to contain the pandemic from further outbreak.
A Lebanese teacher was ticketed last week for violating the corona curfew when police busted him jogging at Beirut seaside.