British family hear daily explosions in nervous wait for flight out of Lebanon

A British mother and her young family in Lebanon are “on edge” as they face a five-day wait for a flight back to the UK amid daily explosions.

Victoria Lupton, 37, who divides her time between Achrafieh in Beirut and Cambridge, arrived in the Lebanese capital on Tuesday September 17, on the same day a wave of blasts hit pagers and walkie-talkies belonging to Hezbollah members.

Ms Lupton told the PA news agency she was in her apartment with her British-Lebanese husband protecting their two-year-old daughter – whom she does not wish to name – after they heard blasts in their area on Monday as a result of the growing violence between Israel and Hezbollah.

“I was trying to protect my two-year-old from the noise of that,” she said.

“Since then, we regularly hear distant rumblings of explosions and all of us are really on edge – even when a door slams, we’re jumping up.

“Last weekend, there was a thunderstorm, and there were rumbles of thunder happening, and I was with a group of people, and everyone thought that that was either a sonic boom or a rocket. We were all very uneasy looking at each other.”

Ms Lupton and her family have registered their names with the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) in case of an evacuation, but have booked a commercial flight back to the UK on Wednesday October 2, the earliest she could find.

The FCDO has advised British nationals in Lebanon “to leave, while commercial options remain available”.

Ms Lupton who is founder and chief executive of Seenaryo, a non-profit which helps educate Middle Eastern women and children through theatre and play, said there is a “shared experience” among British nationals in Lebanon in “constantly discussing when to stay and when to go” from the country.

She added it is a “huge privilege” she and her family are able to leave as tensions rise while so many Lebanese have no escape route.

“The constant discussion with myself and my husband is, ‘how long do we stay? When do we leave?’,” she said.

Ms Lupton described Beirut as a small city in which “you’re never far away” from explosions each day.

“What’s strange is that the rockets are very quiet now, and therefore you don’t hear enormous explosions around you,” she said.

“In some areas of Beirut life is continuing as normal, businesses are open, restaurants are open.

“But everyone is under this stress and knowing that people are being killed a 10-minute drive away and absolutely no knowledge of what tomorrow brings.”

She said she has focused on her work and her daughter as a way to cope amid the rising tensions in Lebanon.

“I’m very focused on my work. I’m very focused on my daughter. I would say I’m not particularly allowing much space for how I’m feeling,” she said.

“As with everyone else, you notice the signs of the stress and anxiety.

“I really noticed that I couldn’t concentrate, I was trying to do a million things and not really managing to do them.”

She fears Lebanon is not being covered in the British media enough and called for outlets to pay more attention to the situation in the country.

“I’m concerned that Lebanon is not in the news enough,” she said.

“I think that there’s a real exhaustion among the British public at what’s been happening in the last year in the region since October 7 and the Hamas attacks and the subsequent assault on Gaza.

“The basic message is this needs your attention.”