BEIRUT BLAST TOLL RISES AS RESCUERS SEARCH RUBBLE

Governor says 300,000 may be homeless after explosion that will cost more than $3bn

The death toll from two enormous explosions in Lebanon’s capital rose to at least 135 yesterday as rescuers continued efforts to retrieve injured people from the rubble spread across central Beirut.

Governor Marwan Abboud spoke of “an apocalyptic situation” that he said may have made 300,000 people temporarily homeless and would cost the country more than $3 billion (Dh11bn).

The blast left Beirut resemblng the scene of an earthquake, with thousands of people made destitute and thousands more cramming into overwhelmed hospitals for treatment. Smoke was still rising from the port, where a towering silo had been destroyed. Major streets in the city centre were littered with debris and damaged vehicles, and building facades were blown out.

The death toll is expected to rise as overburdened hospitals continue to treat victims of the blasts.

Prime Minister Hassan Diab said 2,750 tonnes of the agricultural fertiliser ammonium nitrate that had been stored for years in a port-side warehouse had blown up, sparking “a disaster in every sense of the word”. He promised an investigation into who was responsible for the blast.

Lebanon’s Cabinet yesterday agreed to place all Beirut port officials who had overseen storage and security since 2014 under house arrest, ministerial sources told Reuters.

It is not known how many officials will be included or their level of seniority. The army will oversee the house arrest until responsibility is determined.

But a senior Lebanese politician represented in the government predicted that whoever was responsible would get away with it.

“We are seeing an accumulation of decades of state collapse,” the politician told The

National. He said that although the political players buried their differences for now, the long-term aid needed to limit the economic collapse would not arrive, because it is contingent on reform.

“We are unable to do it and we do not want to do it,” he said, referring to structural reforms demanded by possible donors and international financial institutions. “We will get medicine and field hospitals. But such a government will not receive structural help.”

The government announced a two-week state of emergency during which the army will take over security of the capital after a meeting of the Higher Defence

Committee on Tuesday. Ministers yesterday confirmed the state of emergency.

President Michel Aoun ordered 100 billion Lebanese pounds (Dh243 million) to be released as an emergency fund.

Messages of support poured in from around the world, including France, which said it would send three planes carrying rescuers, medical equipment and a mobile clinic, followed by a visit tomorrow by President Emmanuel Macron.

MP Nicolas Sehnaoui of the Free Patriotic Movement said Lebanon was facing a “humanitarian crisis of global proportion”.

“This compounded with the economic crisis we are facing and the banking system failure ... puts Lebanon and its population at a very high risk of total failure,” he said.

“So we are organising as best we can as a state, NGOs and civil societies to cope with emergencies of the situation, securing homes for the homeless, security for houses and medical services for the injured.

“We need all the help we can get from Lebanon’s friends abroad.”

He hoped that Lebanon would “rise again like a phoenix”, as it has done after numerous crises.

General Security chief Abbas Ibrahim said the material being stored at the port had been confiscated years earlier and stored in the warehouse, only minutes from Beirut’s shopping and nightlife districts.

The explosion was the most powerful yet in the city, which was on the front lines of the 1975-1990 civil war and has endured conflicts with neighbouring Israel and periodic bombings and terrorist attacks.

“L’Apocalypse,” read the front page of Lebanon’s L’Orient-Le

Jour newspaper. Another paper, Al Akhbar, had a photo of a destroyed port with the words: “The Great Collapse”.

US President Donald Trump on Tuesday said it could have been an attack, despite statements by Lebanese leaders.

“The United States stands ready to assist Lebanon,” Mr Trump said. Two US officials said initial information did not appear to show that the explosion was an attack.

All Beirut port officials who had overseen storage and security since 2014 will be placed under house arrest