A powerful explosion in Beirut’s port area shook the entire Lebanese capital on Tuesday afternoon and left an “innumerable” number of people injured, the country’s National News Agency reported.
There are “several dead and injured” as a result of the explosion, while commercial establishments and homes in several of the city’s neighborhoods near the port were damaged.
More than 500 injured people are receiving treatment at the Hotel Dieu de France hospital in downtown Beirut, according to local television network LBCI, which said that medical facilities cannot receive more patients.
The director of Lebanon’s General Directorate of General Security, Abbas Ibrahim, told members of the media at Beirut’s port that “it appears the explosion occurred at a warehouse with highly explosive material confiscated years ago,” without providing further details.
Lebanese President Michel Aoun, for his part, called for shelter to be provided for all those displaced by the explosion. He also ordered the armed forces to conduct patrols in the area most affected by the explosion.
Health Minister Hamad Hasan has instructed all hospitals to receive those injured in the blast and said the ministry will cover the cost of their treatment.
Images published on social media show the explosion and a large mushroom-shaped cloud rising in the sky. Plumes of white- and reddish-colored smoke were then seen in the sky above the port area, located on the Mediterranean coast.
Images aired by Lebanese media outlets or published on social media show the damage the explosion caused to commercial establishments and homes in several port-adjacent areas of the capital.
Beirut Gov. Marwan Abboud, meanwhile, told local television channel LBC that half of the city suffered “major damage,” without offering more details.
Earlier Tuesday, dozens of people protested outside the headquarters of the Energy Ministry in Beirut to denounce frequent power cuts and call for the minister’s resignation, but they were repelled by police as they approached the building.
Images published by local media showed tense clashes taking place in front of the building, around which a security cordon had been established. Lebanese people have been enduring hours-long power cuts on a daily basis, a situation that the government has pledged to solve but which has worsened due to fuel shortages.
The country is currently experiencing its worst economic crisis since the end of the 1975-1990 civil war, with sky-high inflation and a dramatic depreciation of the local currency relative to the dollar.
Lebanon’s electricity system has not provided a constant supply of power since the war, prompting people to rely on expensive private or collective generators.
Text: EFE