BEIRUT (Somaliguardian) –Lebanese officials told media on Wednesday that the toll was expected to rise after Tuesday’s blast at port warehouse that stored highly explosive material.
According to experts, the blast was the most powerful ever to rip through Beirut, a city severely scarred by civil war three decades ago and reeling from an economic meltdown and a surge in coronavirus infections.
The explosion sent a mushroom cloud into the sky and rattled windows on the Mediterranean island of Cyprus, about 160km away.
Over 100 people are said to have been killed in the explosion with nearly 4,000 wounded. Rescue workers dug through the mangled wreckage of buildings on Wednesday looking for survivors after a massive warehouse explosion sent a devastating shockwave across Beirut.
Lebanon’s president Michael Aoun said 2,750 tonnes of ammonium nitrate, used in fertilizers and bombs had been stored for six years at the port without safety measures.
In a televised speech to the nation, he said his government was “determined to investigate and expose what happened as soon as possible, to hold the responsible and the negligent accountable and to sanction them with the most severe punishment.”
An official source familiar with ongoing investigation blamed the incident on “inaction and negligence”, saying nothing was done by committees and judges to order the removal of hazardous material.
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