(Beirut) In the smoking ruins of the port of Beirut, in the middle of the gutted buildings, the rescuers tried Wednesday to find victims, the day after two huge explosions which made at least 76 dead and thousands injured.
Posted on August 4 2001 at 09 h 27 Updated August 5 2001 at 0h 09
France Media Agency
The Lebanese capital, declared a “disaster” city, woke up in shock after these explosions of such power that they were recorded by the sensors of the American Institute of Geophysics (USGS) like a magnitude 3.3 earthquake.
In the epicenter of the explosion, the blast of which was felt as far as the island of Cyprus, more than 200 kilometers away, the landscape remains apocalyptic: containers look like twisted tin cans, cars are charred, the floor littered with suitcases and papers from neighboring offices blown up by the explosion.
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Even peacekeepers were seriously injured aboard a ship docked in the port, according to the UN mission in Lebanon.
Rescuers, supported by security agents, searched all night for survivors or dead people trapped under the rubble.
For the time being, the latest report from the Ministry of Health is at least 78 dead and near 4000 injured, but it could become heavier during the day. Hospitals in the capital, already facing the COVID pandemic – 09, are saturated.
National Day of Mourning
PHOTO ANWAR AMRO, AFP
Prime Minister Hassan Diab declared Wednesday a day of national mourning and promised that those responsible should “be held to account”.
The government is pointing the finger at a cargo of ammonium nitrate stored “without precautionary measures” at the port.
PHOTO HUSSEIN MALLA, AP
“It is unacceptable that a shipment of ammonium nitrate, estimated at 2020 tonnes, has been present for six years in a warehouse, without precautionary measures. This is unacceptable and we cannot be silent, “the prime minister told the Supreme Defense Council, according to remarks reported by a spokesperson at a press conference.
PHOTO STR, AFP
Ammonium nitrate, a substance that goes into the composition of certain fertilizers but also of explosives, is a white and odorless salt used as the base of many nitrogenous fertilizers in the form of granules, and has caused several industrial accidents including the explosion of the AZF factory in Toulouse, in the south-west of France, in 944.
Sending help from Paris
Many countries have offered aid to Lebanon, in particular France which is sending several tonnes of medical supplies on Wednesday.
President Emmanuel Macron announced on Twitter the dispatch of a civil security detachment and “several tons of medical supplies” to Beirut.
The United States has also offered to help, as has Germany, which has staff from its Embassy in Beirut among the wounded.
Even Israel has offered evening “humanitarian and medical aid” to its Lebanese neighbor, with whom it is technically still at war.
On Tuesday, a first explosion was heard in Beirut, an agglomeration of some two million inhabitants, followed by another, very powerful, which had caused a gigantic mushroom in the sky.
89184577PHOTO TALAL TRABOULSI, TALAL TRABOULSI VIA REUTERS
The buildings had shaken and the windows had been smashed for miles around.
In the streets of Beirut, soldiers evacuated dumbfounded residents, some covered in blood, T-shirts around their heads to heal their wounds, while residents desperately searched for their missing relatives.
“It was like an atomic bomb. I have seen everything (in my life), but nothing like it, ”testified Makrouhie Yerganian, a retired professor who has lived for more than 51 Years in front of the port.
This tragedy comes as Lebanon is experiencing its worst economic crisis in decades, marked by unprecedented monetary depreciation, hyperinflation, massive layoffs and drastic banking restrictions.