The surprise has turned to anger in Lebanon since Tuesday’s colossal explosion killed at least 154 other people and devastated parts of the capital, and security forces fired tear fuel at protesters that piled up near parliament on Thursday night.
It is not yet clear what ignited the 2,750 tons of fertilizer: authorities said repair paints in the warehouse had recently begun, while fire paints were stored nearby.
Near the blast site, next to the housing of the port’s gigantic grain silos, the rescue of France, Germany and Italy coordinated their search efforts.
“I’m waiting to hear you’ve been kept alive, my dear,” tweeted Emilie Hasrouty, whose brother is missing.
“There wasn’t a door I didn’t knock on to find out what happened to you, and now that the wait is almost over, I’m paralyzed by fear.
Beirut has gained foreign aid since the explosion and on Thursday welcomed French President Emmanuel Macron, who suggested Lebanese leaders go through primary reform.
World leaders joined the chorus of voices in Lebanon and the diaspora to call for an investigation into the cause of the devastation.
The President of the European Council, representing EU leaders Charles Michel, announced that he will visit Beirut on Saturday.
“Shocked and saddened, we stand with all those affected and will provide help,” Michel tweeted, announcing meetings with President Michel Aoun, parliamentary speaker Nabih Berri and Prime Minister Hassan Diab.
The European Union announced on Thursday that it had provided 33 million euros to finance emergency aid to Lebanon and mobilized resources for curtains, adding an Italian hospital ship, to relief efforts in Beirut.
Senior European officials will register for a video convention organized in France on Sunday as donors mobilize for Lebanon, a European source said.
Strange calm
Near the empty silos of Beirut’s harbor, Russian rescuers were left with corn up to their ankles, while diggers disposed of mutilated shipping containers.
A sense of calm invades the once bustling harbor, reduced to a massive heist.
The only sounds are heavy machinery cutting through forests of twisted iron rods and mountains of concrete debris to pave the way for rescuers.
French rescuers said they had recovered four bodies, but have not discovered anyone alive.
Relatives of those in need have been coming to port for days in the hope of the fate of their loved ones.
Lebanese hospitals, which have already been affected by a wave of coronavirus cases and a severe economic crisis, have been unable to cope with the number of injured and the government has suggested foreign donors send cash hospitals and medical supplies.
Doctors were still lifting about 20 medical tents when the first wave of patients began to arrive.
Among them was a 93-year-old boy who suffered back and chest pain after Tuesday’s explosion and a three-year-old Syrian boy whose skull pierced a glass shard.
First arrests
The destruction caused by the explosion spanning more than one part of the capital and the damage expected to take over $3 billion, world leaders have subsidized Lebanese calls to hold the culprits accountable.
During his rapid scale on Thursday, Macron presses on the need for a foreign investigation after the assembly of Lebanese politicians, adding representatives of the harsh Shia motion Hezbollah, whose leader Hasan Nasrallah should speak later on Friday.
The Lebanese government had announced its own investigation into Tuesday’s explosion and an army prosecutor said Thursday that 16 others had been arrested.
They included the port’s general manager, Hassan Koraytem, a judicial source told AFP.
The central bank also ordered the asset freeze of seven port and customs officials, an official and a bank told the AFP.
The measures suppressed anger on the streets of Beirut, where dozens of protesters clashed with security forces on Thursday night, firing a barrae of tear gas.
Lebanese leaders were already deeply unpopular, with a wave of mass protests erupted in October last year that declined in the face of the coronavirus pandemic.
(FRANCE 24 with AFP)