Reuters reported that the warehouse explosion that shook Beirut, the capital of Lebanon, claimed the lives of close to eighty people and left nearly four thousand injured, while officials expect the number to rise as rescuers look through rubble in the hope of finding survivors.
The said blast took place on Tuesday, August 04, 2020 at a “port warehouse” wherein “highly explosive material” were stored amid the surging infections of coronavirus in a country which was “already reeling from an economic crisis”. The Lebanese president Michel Aoun found the situation “unacceptable” as for the past six years “2,750 tonnes of ammonium nitrate” which goes into bombs and fertilisers were being stored “at the port without safety measures”.
Today, the president has called an “emergency cabinet meeting”.
No information has been received from the officials about the cause of the fire which “set off the blast”. According to a local media and a “security source” some welding work that was going on in the warehouse is at the root of the fire. George Kettani from “Lebanon’s Red Cross” informed the Mayadeen broadcaster:
“What we are witnessing is a huge catastrophe. There are victims and casualties everywhere.”
The blast took place “shortly after 6 p.m.” which cast “an orange glow” in the night sky as fire continued t blaze while ambulance and helicopters soon reached the spot. Chaos prevailed at the spot as injured people still dazed from the shock of the blast walked through the streets weeping in search of their relatives. While, a designer from Beirut, Huda Baroudi was quoted by Reuters saying:
“The blast blew me off metres away. I was in a daze and was all covered in blood. It brought back the vision of another explosion I witnessed against the U.S. embassy in 1983”.
The Lebanese Prime Minister, Hassan Diab assured that people responsible for the “deadly blast” will “pay the price”, while the U.S. embassy in Beirut cautioned the residents about “reports of toxic gases” which were released in the blast and advised them to be indoors and even use “masks if available”.
Moreover, the Health Minister, Hamad Hasan informed Reuters:
“There are many people missing. People are asking the emergency department about their loved ones and it is difficult to search at night because there is no electricity”.
Footage of the explosion was caught by various residents and had been heavily shared on social media platform showed a rising column of smoke which was followed by “an enormous blast” which clouded the sky, while people documenting the same even from a distance of two kilometres were “thrown backwards by the shock”.
Furthermore, Reuters informed:
“The explosion occurred three days before a U.N.-backed court is due to deliver a verdict in the trial of four suspects from the Shi’ite Muslim group Hezbollah over a 2005 bombing which killed former Prime Minister Rafik al-Hariri and 21 others”.
Israeli officials claimed that Israel had no hand in the above mentioned blast and it is willing to provide “humanitarian and medical assistance”. Many other like Shi’ite Iran, Saudi Arabia, Cyprus also came forward offering helping hands.
References:
reuters.com
The said blast took place on Tuesday, August 04, 2020 at a “port warehouse” wherein “highly explosive material” were stored amid the surging infections of coronavirus in a country which was “already reeling from an economic crisis”. The Lebanese president Michel Aoun found the situation “unacceptable” as for the past six years “2,750 tonnes of ammonium nitrate” which goes into bombs and fertilisers were being stored “at the port without safety measures”.
Today, the president has called an “emergency cabinet meeting”.
No information has been received from the officials about the cause of the fire which “set off the blast”. According to a local media and a “security source” some welding work that was going on in the warehouse is at the root of the fire. George Kettani from “Lebanon’s Red Cross” informed the Mayadeen broadcaster:
“What we are witnessing is a huge catastrophe. There are victims and casualties everywhere.”
The blast took place “shortly after 6 p.m.” which cast “an orange glow” in the night sky as fire continued t blaze while ambulance and helicopters soon reached the spot. Chaos prevailed at the spot as injured people still dazed from the shock of the blast walked through the streets weeping in search of their relatives. While, a designer from Beirut, Huda Baroudi was quoted by Reuters saying:
“The blast blew me off metres away. I was in a daze and was all covered in blood. It brought back the vision of another explosion I witnessed against the U.S. embassy in 1983”.
The Lebanese Prime Minister, Hassan Diab assured that people responsible for the “deadly blast” will “pay the price”, while the U.S. embassy in Beirut cautioned the residents about “reports of toxic gases” which were released in the blast and advised them to be indoors and even use “masks if available”.
Moreover, the Health Minister, Hamad Hasan informed Reuters:
“There are many people missing. People are asking the emergency department about their loved ones and it is difficult to search at night because there is no electricity”.
Footage of the explosion was caught by various residents and had been heavily shared on social media platform showed a rising column of smoke which was followed by “an enormous blast” which clouded the sky, while people documenting the same even from a distance of two kilometres were “thrown backwards by the shock”.
Furthermore, Reuters informed:
“The explosion occurred three days before a U.N.-backed court is due to deliver a verdict in the trial of four suspects from the Shi’ite Muslim group Hezbollah over a 2005 bombing which killed former Prime Minister Rafik al-Hariri and 21 others”.
Israeli officials claimed that Israel had no hand in the above mentioned blast and it is willing to provide “humanitarian and medical assistance”. Many other like Shi’ite Iran, Saudi Arabia, Cyprus also came forward offering helping hands.
References:
reuters.com
