BEIRUT, Lebanon — The huge blast at Beirut port has killed at least 137 people, left dozens missing, and at least 5,000 wounded, a Lebanese health ministry spokesperson said Thursday.
Tuesday's explosion obliterated part of the port and caused damage over a wide radius in the heart of the city, prompting fears the final death toll could yet rise significantly.
Anger mounted in Lebanon on Wednesday as rescuers searched for survivors of the cataclysmic explosion at Beirut port that wreaked destruction across the city, plunging crisis-stricken Lebanon further into the abyss.
The blast on Tuesday, apparently triggered by a fire igniting 2,750 tons of ammonium nitrate fertilizer left unsecured in a warehouse of Beirut port, was heard as far as Cyprus, some 150 miles (240 kilometers) away.
It struck the Lebanese capital like an earthquake, with thousands of people left destitute and thousands more cramming into overwhelmed hospitals for treatment.
One doctor, his own head bandaged like those of his patients, described the scene as “Armageddon.”
“Wounded people bleeding out in the middle of the street, others lying on the ground in the hospital courtyard,” said Dr Antoine Qurban outside Hotel Dieu Hospital in central Beirut.
And as volunteers led the clear-up effort, public outrage mounted over how such a vast haul of highly combustible material – sometimes used for home - made bombs – had been stored next to a densely populated area for at least six years.
The government vowed to investigate and cabinet urged the military to place those responsible for storing the substance under house arrest.
But Lina Daoud, a 45-year-old resident of the devastated Mar Mikhail district where the explosion had strewn bodies in the street, blasted the country's politicians as “enemies of the state.”
“They killed our dreams, our future,” she said.
“Lebanon was a heaven, they have made it hell.” An initial explosion and fire at the port had sent many people to balconies and rooftops where they were filming when the fertilizer exploded, sending out a massive shockwave across the city.
In an instant, the blast left destruction likened to that caused by the country's 1975-1990 civil war, leveling buildings several hundred meters (yards) away.
City mayor Abboud said the devastation may have left 300,000 people temporarily homeless, adding to the cashstrapped country's economic misery with an estimated $3 billion in damages.
“'Even in the worst years of the civil war, we didn't see so much damage over such a large area,” said analyst Kamal Tarabey.
Outrage
The disaster came with Lebanon already on its knees with a months-long economic crisis and currency devaluation sparking spiraling poverty even before the coronavirus pandemic hit.
The embattled government of Prime Minister Hassan Diab vowed that “those responsible for this catastrophe will pay the price.”