Massive explosion devastates the port of Beirut
A huge blast at the Lebanese capital's port killed scores of people, injured thousands and flattened entire neighbourhoods.
A catastrophic explosion tore through the port of Beirut on Tuesday evening, killing more than 200 people, injuring thousands and devastating large parts of the Lebanese capital in one of the largest non-nuclear blasts ever recorded.
The explosion was traced to roughly 2,750 tonnes of ammonium nitrate, a highly explosive chemical used in fertiliser, that had been stored unsafely in a port warehouse for years after being seized from a ship. A fire broke out in the warehouse, and the resulting detonation sent a towering mushroom cloud over the city and a shockwave that shattered windows kilometres away and was felt as far as Cyprus.
Hospitals, already strained by the coronavirus pandemic and an economic collapse, were overwhelmed by the wounded. An estimated 300,000 people were left homeless as apartments and businesses across the city were wrecked.
The disaster deepened a political crisis in a country already reeling from a currency collapse, soaring poverty and public fury at a political class widely seen as corrupt. Protesters poured back into the streets, blaming government negligence for the stored chemicals, and the cabinet resigned within days.
International aid flowed in, but questions about accountability lingered. For many Lebanese, the blast became a symbol of a state that had failed its people, compounding grief with anger at how such a quantity of explosives had been left to sit in the heart of their city.