Beirut burns again as furious crowds demand revolution
PROTESTERS demanding revolution stormed government offices in Beirut last night in fresh demonstrations following the huge port explosion that killed at least 158 people and devastated the city.
Violent clashes broke out as antigovernment groups hurled petrol bombs at police, who retaliated with tear gas until the Lebanese army was drafted in to take control of the city centre.
TV footage showed protesters breaking into the energy and economy ministries. Protesters also stormed the headquarters of the country’s banking association.
Soldiers were seen patrolling the streets in vehicles mounted with machine guns.
The protests came after a morning of funerals for victims of the blast. As well as those killed, 6,000 were wounded and an estimated 300,000 have been left homeless.
About 5,000 people had earlier gathered in the central square to vent their fury at the government.
A large deployment of police tried to contain them as they chanted ‘the people want the fall of the regime’, and advanced towards parliament.
Cardboard cut-outs of Hassan Nasrallah, the leader of militant group Hezbollah, and Speaker of the Parliament Nabih Berri were hung in mock gallows.
‘There is hatred and there is blood between us and our authorities,’ said Najib Farah, a 35-year-old protester in central Beirut. ‘The people want revenge.’
As this demonstration was going on, a few hundred yards along the street a group of retired Lebanese army officers stormed the foreign ministry and declared it the ‘headquarters of the revolution’. They also burned a framed portrait of President Michel Aoun.
It is thought at least one police officer was killed in the protests, and the Lebanese Red Cross said at least 238 people had been hurt, with 63 taken to hospital.
Prime Minister Boris Johnson spoke to President Aoun yesterday and conveyed the UK’s ‘deepest sympathies to the Lebanese people’, Downing Street said. Britain has pledged £5.8million in aid and sent a team of medics to the area.
The anti-government protest movement erupted last October, fuelled by an economic crisis and a collapsing currency.
Last night thousands of young men and women moved back into a camp which had become the headquarters of that campaign, some carrying portraits of blast victims and a banner bearing the names of the dead.
They pinned the blame for Tuesday’s mega-blast, in a port warehouse packed with 2,000 tons of ammonium nitrate fertiliser, on the country’s leaders.
In a TV address, Lebanese Prime Minister Hassan Diab said people had a ‘right to be angry’ and promised early parliamentary elections.
The 2.75 kiloton explosion was almost one fifth of the power of the Hiroshima nuclear blast, and Beirut mayor Jamal Itani put the cost of the damage at up to £11.5 billion.
Ammonium nitrate is also used by terrorists to make explosives. It is thought to have arrived in 2013 aboard the cargo ship MV Rhosus, owned by a Russian businessman, before being impounded.