HORROR OF THE BEIRUT ‘HIROSHIMA’
Terrifying blast heard 150 miles away kills 63 and injures 2,700
MORE than 2,700 people were injured and at least 63 killed when a massive explosion tore through downtown Beirut last night.
Swathes of the Lebanese capital were laid waste by the blast that could be heard 150 miles away in Cyprus.
The carnage – reportedly triggered by tens of thousands of tons of stored ammonium nitrate – left the port area of the city looking like the aftermath of nuclear war.
Dazed and bloodied survivors staggered from a scene strewn with overturned shipping containers and cars. Every window pane for 15 miles was blown in.
The ceiling at Beirut airport, six miles away, came crashing down.
Beirut governor Marwan Abboud compared the obliteration to the atomic bombs dropped by the US 75 years ago.
He said: ‘It resembles what happened in Japan, in Hiroshima and Nagasaki. In my life, I haven’t seen destruction on this scale.’
Last night firefighters were tackling multiple blazes as rescue workers fought to locate people trapped under rubble. Some survivors in the port had to be rescued by boat.
Videos captured the incredible explosion. A mushroom cloud dwarfed the vibrant city as a ring of fire swept out at devastating speed.
British grandmother Valerie Fakhoury, 65, of
Darlington, County Durham, who works at Beirut’s American Community School, arrived at hospital with blood pouring from her head. Other clinics – including Hotel Dieu Hospital which reported 500 casualties and appealed for blood donors – were already overrun by the coronavirus pandemic.
The explosion was triggered by a fire at a warehouse containing highly explosive material, believed to be ammonium nitrate or fireworks, which had been seized years ago.
Local resident Hadi Nasrallah said: ‘I was in a taxi cab. We saw smoke. Then suddenly I lost my hearing. Glass shattered all over us, from the car, the stores, the buildings. It was raining glass all over the city. It was shocking. Later I saw my house, kilometres away, with its wall cracked. The streets were like a carpet of broken glass.’
British journalist Lizzie Porter, who lives a mile from the scene, said: ‘It was 6.10pm and there was a rumble like thunder. Then the whole apartment building shook like an earthquake.’ Another witness told Reuters: ‘I saw a fireball and smoke billowing over Beirut. People were screaming and running, bleeding. Balconies were blown off buildings.’
Lebanese health minister Hassan Hamad vowed ‘officials will pay the price’ if civil servants had allowed explosive materials to be stored unsafely.
‘It was raining glass all over the city’