- Title: LEBANON: FOREIGN VISAS AND BLOOD PLASMA IN DEMAND AS FIGHTING INTENSIFIES.
- Date: 5th August 1978
- Summary: 1. GV EXTERIOR: American embassy. 0.03 2. SV: people filling out applications and standing in front of embassy. (4 shots) 0.19 3. GV: people queuing outside French Embassy gates. (2 shots) 0.26 4. SV AND CU: people outside Embassy and filling out forms. (3 shots) 0.34 5. SV EXTERIOR: blood donation centre. 0.37 6. SV INTERIOR: man
- Embargoed: 20th August 1978 13:00
- Keywords:
- Location: BEIRUT, LEBANON
- Country: Lebanon
- Reuters ID: LVA87G6SN4G4GWGGP8LR3AF6Q4DJ
- Story Text: Artillery duels between left and right-wing forces have again become a feature of the continued fighting in Beirut, bringing fears of a return to the indiscriminate shelling of large areas of the city - a style of fighting last seen there during the bloody battle of 1975-76. For the past month fighting int he city has been mainly between Syrian troops and the right-wing militias of predominantly Christian east Beirut. But on Friday (4 August) at leat two people were killed and 16 injured as shells once again fell at random in the Moslem west Beirut. The increases in the level of fighting has led to hundreds of Lebanese applying for visas to enter foreign countries. It has also meant here is an increasing need to obtain plasma for blood transfusions.
SYNOPSIS: The United States Embassy in Beirut has attracted crowds every day for the oast few weeks as Lebanese citizens fill out forms and wait in lines in an attempt to obtain an entry visa.
France is another country which appeals to many Lebanese who wish to leave their war-ravaged towns and cities, and at the French Embassy it is the same scene, patient form-filling and long waits.
This blood donor centre is in Christian east Beirut where at least 200 people have been killed in the past month. But it is for the many wounded that this centre and others like it are important. As the plasma is collected and analysed records are kept of different blood groups held at the centre for immediate use in emergencies.
It is a never-ending job. As a doctor writes up his own reports of the day's collection of blood, more plasma bottles are prepared for the next donors.
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