World Health Organization (WHO) Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus survived an air strike on Yemen's main airport carried out by Israel on Thursday. He got caught in a series of attacks on the Iran-aligned Houthi movement. Tedros told Reuters that the explosions at the Sanaa International Airport were so loud that his ears were still ringing.

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Describing the scene, the WHO chief that he soon realised that the airport was under attack. Four blasts rocked buildings, with people running around in "disarray" through the site. One of the blasts was "alarmingly" close to where he was sitting near the departure lounge.

He told Reuters that he wasn't sure of surviving the attack. "I was not sure actually I could survive because it was so close, a few meters from where we were," he told Reuters. "A slight deviation could have resulted in a direct hit."

A video shows Tedros and others running inside as strikes rocked the airport.

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Also Read: West Asia crisis: Israel launches multiple strikes in Yemen, three killed

Drones continued to fly overhead, leading to fears that more attacks might follow. This forced Tedros and his colleagues to stay at the airport for more than an hour. They saw the debris which comprised missile fragments.

"There (was) no shelter at all. Nothing. So you're just exposed, just waiting for anything to happen," he said.

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Tedros, speaking on the phone from Jordan, said he had received no warning about the strikes at the airport.

Why was Tedros in Yemen?

He had travelled to Yemen over Christmas to try to negotiate the release of UN staff and others held there. 

The Israeli strikes on Yemen came after Houthis repeatedly fired drones and missiles towards Israel. They said the attacks were in solidarity with Palestinians in Gaza. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu later said that Israel was "just getting started" with the Houthis.

The Houthi-controlled Saba News Agency said three people died in the strikes on the airport and three were killed in Hodeidah, with 40 others wounded in the attacks.

Meanwhile, the Israeli military said on Saturday that it intercepted a missile launched from Yemen. Sirens were heard in Jerusalem and the Dead Sea as "a missile launched from Yemen was intercepted... prior to crossing into Israeli territory", the Israeli military said.