As many as 73 people were killed around Beirut’s port in Lebanon on Tuesday after shipments homing 2,750 tonnes of ammonium nitrate stored at the warehouse exploded.
The explosion that followed fuming white clouds around the port sent an enormous orange fireball into the sky, flattened the harbourside and drove a tornado-like shockwave through the city, shattering windows kilometres away.
The explosion ruined the area around the port injuring as many as 3,700 people. The blast reportedly was heard throughout the small country and as far away as Nicosia that is tucked in the eastern Mediterranean island of Cyprus, 240 kilometres away.
“It was like an atomic bomb,” said Makrouhie Yerganian, a retired schoolteacher in her mid-70s who has lived near the port for decades.
“I’ve experienced everything, but nothing like this before,” even during the country’s 1975-1990 civil war, she said. “All the buildings around here have collapsed.”
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Security Chief said that the explosion may have been a result of blasting of the confiscated explosives stored at the port. “It appears there is a warehouse containing material that was confiscated years ago, and it appears that it was highly explosive material,” said Security chief Abbas Ibrahim.
Retired US nuclear scientist Cheryl Rofer tweeted that the “red cloud” of the massive blast was “very likely ammonium nitrate”, a common agricultural fertiliser that is a highly explosive compound.
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Prime Minsiter of Lebanon, Hassan Diab, has asked the help of its friendly and caring countries to help Lebanon in such harsh times.
The explosion occurred at a time when the economy of Lebanon is already railing down. Over the past few months, nearly half of the population has gone into poverty, owing economy woes and coronavirus pandemic.
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Charity Save the Children said “the incident could not have occurred at a worse time”.
