REPORT: Hundreds gather to bid final respects to Safwan family

Seven bodies recovered from sea arrived Thursday afternoon to the Safwan family home in the southern Beirut suburb of Ouzai amid gun salutes.

This as hundreds of friends, relatives and neighbors gathered to pray over the bodies, bidding them farewell.
 
Earlier at midnight, two survivors from the Safwan family arrived at Beirut International Airport on a Turkish Airlines plane, the state-run National News Agency reported.

The family members were identified as 18-year-old Maher and 23-year-old Moussa.

The news agency added that search operations are underway for two remaining family members, Wael and Malek Mohammad Safwan who remain missing, noting that one family member remains under the custody of the Turkish authorities.

Last week a Lebanese family died at sea whilst attempting to make the highly dangerous trip from Turkey to Greece aboard a dinghy boat.

The Safwan family reportedly boarded a flight from Lebanon to Turkey on Sunday (October 11) morning and boarded a boat to Turkey on Wednesday (October 14.)

The Safwan's family, who hail from the Bekaa town of Gorgan, moved to the Beirut region of Ouzai following the war in Syria.