Iranian retaliatory missile and drone strikes rocked the UAE over the weekend, with air defences intercepting threats over Dubai, explosions echoing across the city, fires at landmarks like the Burj Al Arab and Fairmont The Palm, and damage reported at the airport.
A wave of Hollywood, Bollywood and sports stars living in the emirate rushed to Instagram to tell fans: "we are safe."
Leading the wave was Hollywood actress Lindsay Lohan, who lives in the UAE resort with her husband Bader Shammas and their son Luai. The Mean Girls star, 39, posted directly: "Praying for peace. Stay safe everyone. God bless us all". She followed up by sharing that she and her family are "safe" in Dubai, a city she has repeatedly praised as "very grounding" and "the perfect place to raise my son... a safe place where we can just have a normal life, outside of what I call 'the noise'".
Joining her was Indian badminton star PV Sindhu, who is in Dubai for a training camp. Sindhu posted a calm update to her millions of followers: "We are safe in Dubai. Praying for peace for everyone. Stay safe and strong."
Sindhu Says, 'We're Safe in Dubai'
British TV personality Kate Ferdinand, who moved to Dubai last year with her family, was among the first to speak out. "We came to Dubai to feel safe, and we finally felt like we were settling in, and now this has happened," she wrote after describing a "very scary night." She added that the family is safe but admitted the events have shaken their sense of security.
Love Island star , also in Dubai with her daughter, posted simply: "Dubai friends. Scary times. Stay safe."Fellow British reality star Vicky Pattison shared a video update from her hotel: "We are safe and trying to stay calm... We are currently in our hotel and have been assured we're safe... We're doing our best to stay calm, not feed any unconfirmed narratives and we're thinking of everyone who is feeling unsettled and unsafe right now."
Indian erstwhile actress Esha Gupta, stranded in Dubai amid the tensions, reassured followers: "We are ok, we are safe! Times are scary, very tough. God is there to protect us. We trust the@modgovae is doing the best in protecting and interception."
Telugu star Chiranjeevi's daughter Sreeja, also in the city, reshared a message saying "We're Well Protected" and added her own plea: "Praying for peace. No child anywhere should grow up hearing the sound of war above their roof."
Israeli socialite Hofit Golan Shares Palm Jumeirah
Israeli socialite Hofit Golan, who shared footage of the explosions from Palm Jumeirah, urged: "Please stay safe, everyone." Other names crop up include actress Sonal Chauhan and South Indian star Ajith Kumar who confirmed to be safe in Dubai, along with a string of influencers who described hiding in basements or watching missiles streak across the night sky.
The outburst is in a sharp contrast to what many of these stars including Lohan or Sindhu had moved to Dubai or had moved there in the first place. With three killed and dozens injured in the UAE so far, local authorities are ensuring that the celebrity safety posts have now become a mini-genre of their own form of crisis communication: both reassurance, but it's also a silent recognition of how the so-called safest place in the world has suddenly started to feel much less safe.
They appear as personal updates in the lives of Dubai super stars, as the rich expats and sports people who went there to stay due to the peace, post the same two words that the entire world is following: "We're safe".
