A devastating explosion at the port of Beirut last night killed at least people, wounded thousands more, and devastated much of the Lebanese capital.
More than 2,750 tons of highly explosive ammonium nitrate, the main element in fertilizer pumps, exploded when a chimney began through a soldering iron extended to the warehouse where it was stored for six years.
Apocalyptic scenes: A thick orange-red fungus that envelops the streets surrounding the harbor, where buildings burned down, and emergency crews frantically searched for the rubble for survivors.
Damaged hospitals were last night creaking under the strain of more than 4,000 casualties wounded by the blast, which was even heard 125 miles away in Cyprus.
The head of Lebanon’s Red Cross said: ‘What we are witnessing is a huge catastrophe. There are victims and casualties everywhere.’
Prime Minister Hassan Diab promised he would “pay the price” and plunged the country into a two-week state of emergency.
The United States, the United Kingdom, France, the Gulf States and even Israel’s sour rivals have presented its assistance to the country, which is already facing a double economic and coronavirus crisis.
Witnesses compared to the explosion of a nuclear detonation, and scientists who performed the first calculations said that the 2,750 tons of hazardous chemicals had produced an explosion of approximately 3 kilotons of TNT, about one-fifth of the force of the Little Boy atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima in the Second World. War.
General security chief Abbas Ibrahim previously said that “highly explosive material” had been confiscated years earlier, on a ship.
President Donald Trump’s night called the explosion a “terrible attack” and said the US generals told him it gave the impression that it had been caused by some “bomb” without offering any evidence.
An explosion shook Beirut this afternoon, destroying buildings and sending a big fireball to the sky
Dramatic footage shows smoke billowing from the port area shortly before an enormous fireball explodes into the sky and blankets the city in a thick mushroom cloud
Other injured people are being treated in a hospital after the explosion, which injured charges in Beirut last night
It immediately devastated the surrounding buildings, where firefighters were battling the flames tonight, and even wreaked havoc on neighborhoods miles from the site of the explosion.
Fires continue to burn in commercial port due to afternoon in Beirut after fatal explosions
Medics shift an injured person from Najjar Hospital to another hospital in Al-Hamra area in Beirut after several hospitals were damaged in the blast
Lebanese soldier runs into the scene of an explosion in Beirut port
President Trump
President Donald Trump called the fatal explosions a “terrible attack” at a news convention Tuesday, even though there is no evidence that the explosions were intentional.
A series of large explosions in the Lebanese capital’s port domain shook the city the day before, killing at least 70 other people and injuring more than 3,000 others.
“The United States is in a position to help Lebanon,” Trump said at a White House briefing. “We’ll be there to help you. Looks like a horrible attack.
When a reporter asked him if he was sure the explosion was an attack, Trump showed that he was insisting that he had “met with some of our wonderful generals” and seems to think that’s the case.
“They would know more than I did, ” continued the president. “They seem to think that Array … it’s kind of a bomb, yes.
Oh, my God, that’s too bad. Reflections with BeirArray..
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Edited through Associated Newspapers Ltd
Part of the Daily Mail, The Mail on Sunday and Metro Media Group