Powerful Explosion Shatters Beirut, Lebanon: Thousands Injured
On Tuesday, August 4, 2020, a massive blast shook Beirut, Lebanon. Flattening part of the city’s harbour, destroying buildings throughout the capital and throwing a large cloud of mushrooms into the atmosphere. About 100 people have lost life and at least 4,000 injured. Also, there are reports of bodies buried in the rubbles. The deadly force of Beirut’s Blast caused devastation over miles across the explosion area as per the news reports.
It was not clear what caused the explosion. It reached more than 200 kilometres (180 miles) across the Mediterranean. According to Germany’s geoscience centre GFZ, the blast was heard and felt as far away as Cyprus. Due to the blast’s impact, an earthquake of approximately 3.5 magnitude has also been experienced in the area. Lebanese internal security chief said that it seemed to have generated a large amount of ammonium nitrate in the harbour.
Beirut Blast:
A world still dealing with both the coronavirus pandemic and a severe economic and financial downturn has been engulfed by an unexpected catastrophe. Hours after the fire, the most devastating in the tumultuous history of Lebanon, ambulances came in to carry the injured away. Hospitals were soon overfilled, requesting for blood donations and generators to keep their lights on.
For miles across the harbour, where the blast occurred, injured people stumbled through streets filled with overturned vehicles and covered with debris from collapsed houses. Windows and doors were thrown kilometres (miles) inland, also at the only international city airport.
Eyewitness Hadi Nasrallah claims he saw the fire but wasn’t expecting the blow. “I lost my vision for a few seconds, I realized something was wrong, and then all of a sudden the glass just smashed into the vehicle, the vehicles behind us, the markets, the warehouses, the houses, all-glass coming down from all over the place,” he told the BBC.
At the time of the blast, BBC Arabic correspondent Maryem Taoumi held a video interview with a director of the Moroccan Sustainable Energy Agency in Beirut.
The blast began as small blasts like firecrackers, said Charbel Haj, who works at the harbour. He was then knocked off his feet, he added.
President Trump on Beirut Blast:
The blast came in the middle of rising conflicts on the southern frontier of Lebanon, between Israel and the Hezbollah military alliance. While Israeli army overflights are common, several people reported hearing planes overhead just before the explosion, sparking rumours of an attack.
An official in Israel’s government said Israel “had nothing to do” with the explosion. He spoke on condition of anonymity as he was not allowed with the news media to address the matter. Israeli leaders typically will not comment on “outside news” by international intermediaries, the Israeli government provided emergency aid.
President Donald Trump said the United States “is willing to support Lebanon,” and the United Kingdom’s State Secretary, Mike Pompeo, expressed his “deepest concern.”
Background
The blast arrived in Lebanon at a critical moment. Hospitals have failed to deal with Covid-19 diseases on the rise. Now they are faced with thousands of injured people in critical condition.
The world is facing an economic crisis, too. Lebanon imports much of its produce, and vast quantities of grain stored in the port have been lost raising concerns of severe food shortages.
Owing to the damage caused and with many houses and homes reduced to an uninhabitable heap of glass and rubble many people were left homeless, the future of the port itself is in doubt.
The blast happened near the site of a significant car bombing that killed former Premier Rafik Hariri in 2005. A decision is expected at a special court in the Hague in the case of four people convicted of orchestrating Mr. Hariri’s assault on him.
Tensions in Lebanon were strong even before the explosion. With street protests against the government’s handling of the worst economic downturn since the 1975-1990 civil war.
Minister of Health Hassan Hamad said that hospitals were barely coping and that assistance offers had been coming in from Lebanon’s Arab states and relatives.
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