Beirut reels from huge blast as death toll climbs to at least 135. Beirut resident recalls moments of panic after blast. How does Beirut blast compare to other explosions in history?
Negligence cited over storage of explosives
• Lebanese rescue workers searched for survivors in the mangled wreckage of buildings and investigators blamed negligence for a massive warehouse explosion that sent a devastating blast wave across Beirut, killing at least 135 people.
Around 5,000 people were injured in Tuesday’s explosion at Beirut’s port and up to 250,000 were left without homes fit to live in after shock waves smashed building facades, sucked furniture out into streets and shattered windows kilometres inland.
The death toll was expected to rise from a blast that officials blamed on a huge stockpile of highly explosive material stored for years in unsafe conditions at the port.
The explosion was the most powerful ever to rip through Beirut, a city still scarred by civil war that ended three decades ago and reeling from an economic meltdown and a surge in coronavirus infections. The blast rattled buildings on the Mediterranean island of Cyprus, about 230 kilometres away.
President Michel Aoun said 2,750 tonnes of ammonium nitrate, used in fertilizers and bombs, had been stored for six years at the port without safety measures.
He said in a national address the government was “determined to investigate and expose what happened as soon as possible” and to hold those responsible and negligent accountable.
An official source familiar with preliminary investigations blamed the incident on “inaction and negligence,” saying “nothing was done” by committees and judges involved in the matter to order the removal of hazardous material.
The cabinet ordered port officials involved in storing or guarding the material since 2014 to be put under house arrest, ministerial sources told Reuters. The cabinet also announced a two-week state of emergency in Beirut.
Ordinary Lebanese, who have lost jobs and watched savings evaporate in Lebanon’s financial crisis, blamed politicians who have overseen decades of state corruption and bad governance.
“This explosion seals the collapse of Lebanon. I really blame the ruling class,” said Hassan Zaiter, 32, a manager at the heavily damaged Le Gray Hotel.
The health minister told Al Manar television that the death toll had risen to 135, with some 5,000 wounded and others missing. The hunt for victims continued after shock waves from the blast hurled some of the victims into the sea.
Relatives gathered near Beirut’s port, seeking information on those still unaccounted for. Many of those killed were port and custom employees, people working in the area or those driving nearby during rush hour.
The Red Cross was coordinating with the Health Ministry to set up morgues, as hospitals were overwhelmed. Beirut Governor Marwan Abboud told broadcaster LBC the blast had caused damage worth up to $5 billion, and possibly more, and left up to 250,000 people without homes.
Offers of international support poured in. Gulf Arab states, who in the past were major financial supporters of Lebanon but recently stepped back because of what they say is Iranian meddling, sent planes with medical equipment and other supplies. Iran offered food and a field hospital, ISNA news agency said.
The United States, Britain, France and other Western nations, which have been demanding political and economic change in Lebanon, also offered help. Germany, the Netherlands and Cyprus offered specialized search and rescue teams.
For many, it was a dreadful reminder of the 1975-1990 civil war that tore Lebanon apart and destroyed swaths of Beirut, much of which had since been rebuilt.
“This is a catastrophe for Beirut and Lebanon,” Beirut Mayor Jamal Itani said.
Officials did not say what caused the initial blaze at the port that set off the blast. A security source and media said it was started by welding work being carried out on a warehouse.
The port district is a wreck, disabling the main route for imports needed to feed a nation of more than 6 million people.
Lebanon has been struggling to house and feed refugees fleeing conflict in neighbouring Syria and has no trade or other ties with its only other neighbour Israel.
“On a scale, this explosion is scaled down from a nuclear bomb rather than up from a conventional bomb,” said Roland Alford, managing director of British explosive ordnance disposal firm Alford Technologies. “This is huge.”
The blast came three days before a UN- backed court delivers a verdict in the trial of four suspects from Iranian- backed Shi’ite Muslim group Hezbollah over a 2005 bombing that killed former prime minister Rafik al- Hariri and 21 others.
Hariri was killed by a big truck bomb on another part of the Beirut waterfront, about 2 kilometres from the port.
This explosion seals the collapse of Lebanon.