Issued on: 04/08/2020 – 17:54
Two huge explosions rocked the Lebanese capital Beirut on Tuesday, shaking buildings and sending huge plumes of smoke billowing into the sky. The country's health ministry said 73 people had been killed and more than 3,700 injured.
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Lebanese LBC television channel had earlier quoted Health Minister Hamad Hasan saying an explosion in central Beirut had caused a "very high number of injuries" and extensive damage.
Lebanese media carried images of people trapped under rubble, some bloodied, after the massive explosions, the cause of which was not immediately known.
A security source confirmed that two explosions shook the port area of the city, Lebanon's largest urban area.
Lebanon's internal security chief Abbas Ibrahim said that a massive blast in Beirut's port area occurred in a section housing highly-explosive materials, and not explosive as had been reported earlier by the official state news agency NNA.
An AFP correspondent at the scene said every shop in the Hamra commercial district had sustained damage, with entire shopfronts destroyed, windows shattered and many cars wrecked.
Injured people were walking in the street, while outside the Clemenceau Medical Centre, dozens of wounded people, many covered in blood, were rushing to be admitted to the centre including children.
Destroyed cars had been abandoned in the street with their airbags inflated.
A huge cloud of black smoke was engulfing the entire port area, the AFP correspondent said.
The loud blasts in Beirut's port area were felt across the city and beyond and some districts lost electricity.
"Buildings are shaking," tweeted one resident, while another wrote: "An enormous, deafening explosion just engulfed Beirut. Heard it from miles away."
Online footage from a Lebanese newspaper office showed blown out windows, scattered furniture and demolished interior panelling.
The explosions came at a time when Lebanon is suffering its worst economic crisis in decades, which has left nearly half of the population in poverty.
Lebanon's economy Read More – Source
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