More than 100 people were killed in an explosion in Beirut. Sky News Arabia reports on Wednesday with reference to the Lebanese Red Cross society.
Earlier, 78 people were reported dead. According to the TV channel, the number of victims exceeded 4 thousand.
A powerful explosion occurred on Tuesday in the area of the seaport of Beirut near the base of the Lebanese Navy. The blast destroyed and damaged dozens of homes and cars, and shattered windows in many quarters of the capital.
According to local authorities, the cause of the explosion was the detonation of 2.7 thousand tons of ammonium nitrate, confiscated by the customs services in 2015, stored in a warehouse. The country is in mourning. A state of emergency has been declared for two weeks in a city recognized as a disaster zone.
What is known about the explosion in the port of Beirut
A hard explosion occurred on Tuesday in the area of the seaport of Beirut near the base of the Lebanese Navy.
What happened
According to the latest data, more than 100 people were killed and 4,000 injured in the explosion. The city's hospitals are overflowing and the injured are being sent to the outskirts of Beirut.
Facades of buildings located near the port collapsed, and residential buildings and offices were damaged throughout the city. The building of the Russian Embassy was damaged, and one of its employees was injured. It is also reported about damages to buildings of other diplomatic missions, including the Finnish Embassy, which is located two kilometers from the site of the explosion.
There are Internet outages in the country. There is no information about whether these problems are related to the explosion.
As a result of the accident, the General Secretary of the Lebanese Kataib party, Nizar Najarian, was killed. The family and advisers of Lebanese Prime Minister Hassan Diab were affected.
The explosion in Beirut injured 48 UN employees. The charge d'affaires of the Cypriot Embassy was also injured.
The explosion is equivalent in power to a 4.5-magnitude earthquake, Jordanian seismologists said. Its echoes were heard even in the capital of Cyprus, Nicosia-250 km from Beirut.
Beirut has been declared a disaster area. The city has entered a state of emergency for two weeks.
Reason of explosion
At the moment there are several possible causes of the explosion:
Lebanese Interior Minister Mohamed Fahmy said that ammonium nitrate exploded. According to media reports, more than 2,700 tons of ammonium nitrate exploded during welding operations.
The security forces told Al Mayadeen TV that a "cargo of explosive substances" confiscated nine years ago had been detonated.
Al Hadath TV channel does not exclude that it was a rocket attack by the Israeli air force on a warehouse of the radical Hezbollah movement. After the Israeli state radio Kan, citing a source, denied the country's involvement in the incident.
Al Mayadeen TV reported that the explosion occurred in a pyrotechnic warehouse.
According to Kazakh diplomats in Lebanon, a ship with pyrotechnics exploded in the port, while several powerful explosions occurred at once.
The head of the Lebanese security service considers it premature to talk about a terrorist attack.
According to US President Donald Trump, the US Defense Ministry believes that a bomb exploded in Beirut.
Reaction to an emergency
Lebanese President Michel Aoun will call a meeting of the country's Supreme Defense Council. He ordered to provide medical assistance at the expense of state funds, as well as to provide temporary housing to all whose homes and property were damaged.
The Governor of Beirut compared the incident to "the bombings in Hiroshima and Nagasaki".
August 5 is declared a day of national mourning in Lebanon.
Russian President Vladimir Putin expressed his condolences to Michel Aoun.
Israel offered humanitarian and medical assistance to Lebanon through international organizations.
Turkey, Canada and the United States declared their readiness to provide all possible assistance to Lebanon in the aftermath of the explosion.
French President Emmanuel Macron expressed "fraternal solidarity to the Lebanese" and said that he had sent aid to Lebanon.
The EU leaders also expressed their condolences to the families of the victims and expressed their readiness to help Lebanon.
The Emir of Qatar, Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani, ordered a batch of field hospitals to be sent to Lebanon.
GSV "Russia - Islamic World"
Photo: Bilal Hussein / AP / TASS
Based on materials from TASS