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“All of us employees of the Foreign Ministry are very saddened by our colleague,” Heiko Maas said in a statement, adding that the diplomat was killed in his apartment in the Lebanese capital.
The message “confirmed our greatest fears,” said the head of diplomacy.
The woman is the first German citizen to be killed after a devastating explosion in a Beirut port that devastated much of the Lebanese capital.
The preliminary official death toll from the disaster was 137 on Thursday, but dozens of people are still missing and some 5,000 more were injured. The death toll is likely to rise further as rescuers continue their search through the piles of rubble.
Maas also said on Thursday that Germany “should not leave the people of Beirut in danger” and pledged his country’s support during the crisis.
“The disaster may have turned Beirut into ruins, but our friendship with Lebanon has not been affected,” he wrote in an article in the daily Bild.
The German government reportedly sent a team of 47 employees from the THW civil protection agency to Beirut on Wednesday. In addition, the German army said there were medical vehicles there that “could be activated immediately.”
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