Syrian girl who was sent Harry Potter books by JK Rowling has home destroyed in Aleppo siege

Bana Alabed has been tweeting from Aleppo for the last two months
‏@AlabedBana
Patrick Grafton-Green28 November 2016

A young Syrian girl who was sent the Harry Potter books by JK Rowling has narrowly avoided death after her home was destroyed by bombing.

During heavy shelling in eastern Aleppo last night, Bana Alabed tweeted she thought we was going to die, saying one of her tweets would be her "last message".

By the end of the bombardment she said: "Tonight we have no house, it's bombed & I got in rubble. I saw deaths and I almost died."

On Monday morning, the seven-year-old, who has amassed 134,000 followers on Twitter, said the seige, by pro-Bashar al-Assad Syrian forces, was still going on.

She tweeted: "Under heavy bombardments now. In between death and life now, please keep praying for us."

Her messages have been retweeted by JK Rowling.

Bana, who lives with her brothers, mother and father, was sent an e-book by the author after her mother messaged asking how her daughter could get hold of the Harry Potter novels.

On her Twitter account, which is managed by her mother, the little girl has been sharing pictures and videos of the bomb damage in Aleppo for the last two months.

Talking to the BBC last month, mother Fatemah said her daughter "wants the world to hear our voice".

She said: "She says, 'Mum, why does nobody help us?'

"She saw her friend killed, and our house bombed. She saw her school bombed. So that affected her."

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