Two large explosions rocked Beirut port Tuesday afternoon, killing dozens, wounding hundreds and inflicting large scale damage to many parts of the capital, witnesses said as quoted by news agencies.
The cause of the explosions was not immediately clear as two large clouds rose over the port area.
Televised footage of downtown Beirut and the port area show catastrophic damage to infrastructure and buildings.
The source of the explosion was initially believed to be a major fire at a warehouse for firecrackers near the port in Beirut, the state-run National News Agency reported.
The blast sent up a huge mushroom cloud-like shockwave and damaged buildings miles from the port, including the headquarters of former Prime Minister Saad Hariri and CNN’s bureau in downtown Beirut.
Homes as far as 10 kilometers away were damaged, according to witnesses. One Beirut resident who was several kilometers away from the site of the blast said her windows had been shattered by the explosion. “What I felt was that it was an earthquake,” Rania Masri told CNN.
<blockquote class=”twitter-tweet”><p lang=”en” dir=”ltr”>Stunning video shows explosions just minutes ago at Beirut port <a href=”https://t.co/ZjltF0VcTr”>pic.twitter.com/ZjltF0VcTr</a></p>— Borzou Daragahi 🖊🗒 (@borzou) <a href=”https://twitter.com/borzou/status/1290675854767513600?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw”>August 4, 2020</a></blockquote> <script async src=”https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js” charset=”utf-8″></script>
The explosion comes at a sensitive time with the country’s economic collapse reigniting old tensions.
Tensions are also high ahead of the verdict in a trial over the killing of ex-PM Rafik Hariri in 2005. A UN tribunal is due to issue its verdict in the trial of four suspects in the murder by car bomb of Hariri on Friday.//argumentum.al
