UPDATED: At least 100 killed and 4,000 injured as huge explosion rocks Beirut, Lebanon
Two huge explosions have rocked Beirut, killing at least 100 people, injuring thousands more, and sending an enormous blast wave across the city that shattered windows, knocked down doors and shook buildings.
Hundreds of homes were left uninhabitable after the blasts ripped through a section of the Lebanese capital’s port.
Thousands of people sought treatment in nearby hospitals, which were struggling to cope with the casualties. Cars were left strewn across the surrounding highway, and the blast was heard up to 50 miles away in the country’s north. The health minister Hamad Hassan put the confirmed death toll at at least 100 with 4,000 injured.
“God help us from all these catastrophes, said Mamdouh, 25, a caterer who lost his job in June. “If this was an accident, as they’re saying, it’s the worst you could ever imagine. This was like a nuclear bomb. what have we done to deserve this?”
Hours after the explosion, which took place at 6:05pm (1605 BST), the cause remained unclear. Israel denied responsibility and said it had offered humanitarian and medical aid.
Initial reports suggested that a fireworks warehouse was involved. The Lebanese security chief Abbas Ibrahim later blamed combustible chemicals stored in a warehouse. The interior minister, Mohammed Fahmi, said ammonium nitrate had been among the materials stored and called for an investigation into how it ignited.
“Talk of fireworks is ridiculous,” said Ibrahim. “There are no fireworks but rather highly explosive material, and I can’t foretell the investigations … it seems the explosion happened in a warehouse of highly explosive material that was confiscated years ago.”
Lebanon’s prime minister Hassan Diab declared Wednesday a national day of mourning and vowed accountability for those responsible, claiming there had been warnings about hazardous material stored at the port going back to 2014.
So powerful was the force of the blast that it even rattled buildings in west and south Beirut. It happened three days before the verdict is due in an international tribunal trial of four men accused of blowing up a former Lebanese prime minister 15 years ago.
Any link to the tribunal result was quickly downplayed. Meanwhile, the Israeli government said its forces had not carried out an attack. “Israel has nothing to do with the incident,” an Israeli security official told Reuters on condition of anonymity. Israel’s foreign minister, Gabi Ashkenazi, told Israeli N12 television news that the explosion was most likely an accident caused by a fire.
The Beirut port is known to be used by the militant group cum political bloc Hezbollah, which denied any of its facilities had been hit.
The final death toll from the biggest explosion to ever rock Beirut is expected to be significantly higher than the figure given by Hassan.
Georges Kettaneh, a Lebanese Red Cross official, said more deaths were expected when rescue teams combed through damaged buildings.
A doctor at St George’s hospital, less than 2km (1.2 miles) from the blast, said injured people were being brought for treatment but were unable to be received because the hospital had been destroyed.
“They’re bringing people to the hospital but we can’t treat them,” he said. “They’re leaving them outside in the street. The hospital is broken, the ER is broken.”
Damage at the port and in nearby entertainment areas was apocalyptic.
The destruction comes as Lebanon is grappling with an economic implosion that has slashed incomes and jobs and led to soaring nationwide poverty. It also occurred amid rising tensions between Israel and Hezbollah along Lebanons southern border.
The impact of the blast, which was reminiscent of massive blasts during Lebanon’s civil war, was felt 200km away in Cyprus. “Everyone in Cyprus felt it,” said George, a resident of Larnaca. “The door was shaking in my house. In Larnaca they heard it and felt it … It was so loud we thought it happened here. My house was shaking.”
The office of the Daily Star newspaper, about one kilometre from the blast , was among the buildings to sustain damage from the explosion. Another newspaper, An-Nahar, whose headquarters is opposite the port, said 15 of its staff were in hospital.
(The Guardian)
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