Lebanese singer George Al Rassi killed in road crash

Cairo: Well-known Lebanese singer George Al Rassi was killed on Saturday after his car crashed into a road barrier on a highway on the Lebanese-Syrian border, media reports said.

The 42-year-old entertainer was coming to Lebanon after performing at a concert in the Syrian capital Damascus, the reports said.

A woman who was accompanying Al Rassi in the car was also killed in the accident that occurred in Lebanon’s eastern border region of Bakka, according to Lebanon’s state news agency. Civil defence personnel pulled out the two bodies from the car and transferred them to a government hospital, it added.

The crash happened after the singer had allegedly fallen asleep while at the wheel, resulting in collision into a road barrier, unconfirmed reports said. Media images showed the car badly damaged in the aftermath.

The Lebanese civil defence said two people were killed after their car had collided with a concrete barrier in Bekka.

The authorities, without identifying the two victims, said they used rescue hydraulic equipment after the car had been heavily damaged.

Born in January 1980 into an artistic family, Al Rassi launched a music career while still a teenager in the 1990s. Soon he was catapulted to fame in the homeland and beyond.