Lance Armstrong leads Beirut bike tour to help blast victims
At 6:07pm, the time of explosion, hundreds gather near the port and release white balloons with victim’s names on them; some relatives block highway demanding that results of the probe be made public
Former American professional cyclist Lance Armstrong led a bike tour around Beirut on Sunday to raise awareness and funds for organisations helping residents affected by a massive explosion that struck the Lebanese capital in August.
Dozens of cyclists including Lebanese sportsman Maxime Chaya took part in the “Bike for Beirut” tour as Lebanon marked two months since the blast at Beirut’s port, where some 3,000 tonnes of ammonium nitrates were stored for six years before exploding on Aug.4.
It was one of the biggest non-nuclear explosions ever recorded.
“Today we’re starting here, I guess not very far from the actual explosion site,” Armstrong said outside the port. He added that the bike tour aimed to “try to bring some awareness to this community, to the people affected.”
The group of cyclists later entered the port and passed close to the huge crater where, before the explosion, the ammonium nitrates were stored. They then continued the tour around Beirut.
Among the four organisations that the tour is collecting money for are the Lebanese Red Cross and the charity group Offrjoie.
Later Sunday, hundreds of people gathered near the port to mark the blast’s two-month anniversary.
At 6:07pm, the time when the explosion tore through the city, they released scores of white balloons with victim’s names on them.
Some victims’ relatives briefly blocked the main highway that passes near the port, demanding that the results of the investigation be made public.
Armstrong built a world-wide following during his professional career winning races, including the Tour de France seven times, and fighting cancer.
However, his reputation crumbled abruptly several years ago following revelations he used performance-enhancing drugs. Armstrong had already retired, but the confession shatered the legacy of one of the most popular sports figures in the world.
The blast killed 193, wounded about 6,500 and caused billions of dollars in damage.
It decimated the port facility and thousands of apartments in the city. It also came as Lebanon is grappling with its worst economic and financial crisis in decades, made worse by the spread of the coronavirus.
More than two dozen people, mostly port and customs officials, have been detained so far.
The judge in charge of the investigation has questioned top security officials, former Cabinet ministers and port employees.
On Thursday, the lead investigator into the port blast issued two arrest warrants for the captain and owner of a ship that carried thousands of tonnes of ammonium nitrate to Beirut seven years ago, the state-run National News Agency said.
The news agency said judge Fadi Sawwan referred the case to the state prosecution that asked Interpol to detain the two Russian citizens.
NNA did not give the names of the two men but Boris Prokoshev was the captain who sailed the MV Rhosus from Turkey to Beirut in 2013. Igor Grechushkin, a Russian businessman residing in the Mediterranean island of Cyprus, bought the cargo ship in 2012 from Cypriot businessman Charalambos Manoli. Grechushkin has been questioned by police on request of Interpol’s lebanon office in August.
The Rhosus set out from the Georgian Black Sea port of Batumi carrying 2,755.5 tonnes of ammonium nitrate destined for an explosives company in Mozambique. It made an unscheduled detour, stopping in Beirut on Nov.19, 2013.
In October 2014, the ammonium nitrate was moved into the port’s Warehouse 12, which holds impounded materials. The ammonium nitrate remained at the warehouse until it exploded while the Rhosus never let the port and sank there in February 2018, according to lebanese official documents.
Authorities on Friday ordered the lockdown of more than 100 towns and villages across Lebanon ater hundreds of people tested positive for the coronavirus in recent days and amid a shortage of hospital beds.