Damascus: A Syrian youth died on Saturday after swallowing a quantity of gasoline that he was suctioning from the fuel tank of his car through a plastic tube, Lebanese news agency reported.
As per the media reports the young man died in the town of Bhannine in northern Lebanon, in the hospital where he was taken, without disclosing further details.
The Syrian man’s death comes at a time when over the past few months, Lebanon has been suffering from a severe shortage of fuel, which has caused a transportation crisis due to the depletion of fuel tanks for citizens’ cars and shared transportation.
The lack of fuel also causes long hours of power outages for homes and institutions.
The fuel crisis is one of the most prominent consequences of the worst economic crisis in Lebanon and this has led to a financial collapse.
In the midst of this shortage, people are selling petrol in the street in plastic bottles and sometimes use plastic hoses to suck up fuel and fill bottles, either to sell it on the black market or to fill other vehicles.
The situation has seriously deteriorated over the past months, especially after the central bank of Lebanon decided to end subsidies for fuel products. Fuel prices are now 10 times higher than they were last year.