Beirut blast: Mother of babies saved from explosion meets hero nurse

Video report by ITV News Correspondent Emma Murphy

The family of two premature babies caught up in the Beirut explosion have met the hero nurse who saved their lives.

Neo-natal nurse Pamela Zeinoun was caring for her tiny patients when the blast - which has killed at least 160 people and wounded about 6,000 - hit and devastated her hospital.

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For an hour, Ms Zeinoun ran through the obliterated streets, clutching three premature babies to her chest.

Now their mother, Amina Haider, has had the chance to thank the hero nurse who carried her children to safety.

"I saw the destroyed hospital and I thought, that's it, there's no way my babies are alive," Ms Haider said.

"All we found were their blankets.

"Then someone said they were with Pamela, I couldn't believe it."

Ms Zeinoun saved three babies from their incubators - escaping down three flights of dark stairs and finding a safe hospital elsewhere in the city to continue their care.

All but one are now out of hospital - starting their young lives in a city brought to the ground by the enormity of the blast.

ITV News spoke to Ms Zeinoun shortly after the explosion hit the city in Lebanon.

She was thrown across the room and knocked out. When she came around, she knew only she could save the babies.

"The thing that I felt was that these babies belong to me, they are under my protection now, no-one else's protection," Ms Zeinoun said.

"If they are going to make it, they are going to make it with me."

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