BEIRUT: Crowd counting maybe a mathematical science in some countries but not in Lebanon, where it often resembles a political art.

Opposing factions regularly inflate the size of their rallies, claiming hundreds of thousands of supporters took to the streets when in fact a tiny fraction of that turned up.

But no one tried to deny the mammoth scale of Sunday’s anti-government protest organised by the Shia group Hezbollah and its disparate allies, which filled downtown Beirut with a churning sea of humanity.

“There are too many people to count,” said one security source, who declined to be named on such a politically sensitive issue. “It was the biggest rally we’ve ever seen in Lebanon.”

As a Reuters correspondent, I have covered countless demonstrations in numerous countries, from small-scale sit-ins to anti-globalisation riots, from rallies against war to union shutdowns.

But Sunday’s event was perhaps the most vibrant, colourful and animated mass mobilisation I have yet seen.

Banging drums, whirling flags, chanting slogans, Hezbollah’s army of supporters streamed into Beirut for hours on end, emptying villages and city slums recently devastated by Israeli jets in a 34-day war that targeted Shia strongholds and at the same time caused much damage in northern Israel.

In one of the many ironies of Lebanese politics, standing shoulder-to-shoulder with the pro-Syrian Hezbollah were supporters of Christian leader Michel Aoun, a former general who once launched a disastrous war against Syrian forces.

Shia girls wearing Iranian-style chadors, which hid all but their faces behind black cloth, pressed alongside made-up Christian teenagers, wearing skimpy t-shirts and jeans.

Whatever their faith or faction, almost every protester clutched at least one red and white Lebanese flag, emblazoned with the national symbol of the green cedar tree.

Some doomsters have warned that the political crisis, which broadly speaking pits the poorer Shia community against a ruling Sunni elite, could push Lebanon towards a new civil war.

The wounds of the 1975-90 civil war still abound in Beirut, but the atmosphere of the protest appeared to belie fears that any conflict might be imminent. —Reuters