Beirut explosion: City in shock amid destruction
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Ashrafieh’s St George Hospital was particularly badly hit, Jonathan Dagher reports.
The blast killed 17 people in the hospital, including nurses, patients and visitors. Officials say 80 percent of the building has been damaged.
The lobby’s ceiling has collapsed, the ER is out of service and volunteers are frantically clearing up glass.
“It’s a total disaster,” says George Saad, responsible for emergency preparedness and disaster management.
“We felt the earth shake, and then the blast hit. It was tragic,” says a security guard who was on duty at the ER.
With Lebanon already suffering from a devastating economic crisis, many worry about how the port explosion will further worsen an already dire situation.
The port “was the beating heart of the country”, Sami Halabi, director of knowledge and co-founder of Triangle Consulting in Beirut, told MEE on Wednesday.
With foreign currency having dried up, importers had already been struggling to pay for goods, reflected in imports dropping by 50 percent this year. The impact of the explosion on the economy could cause further falls in the lira, which has dropped from LL1,507 to the dollar to over LL8,000 in less than a year, which would make imports even more expensive.
“How will businesses start up again when there are capital controls that don’t let people take money out of banks? And with a fluctuating black market rate for currency? It’s a complete disaster,” said Laury Haytayan, a Beirut-based expert at the National Resource Institute.
Rayyane, a Beirut resident, spoke to MEE's Heba Nasser about volunteer efforts to help clean up the popular and historic Gemmayzeh neighbourhood and distribute food aid in the area.
"It makes me sick to my stomach thinking about people who have lost everything, and loved ones who are nowhere to be found. I don’t know what to say”, the 25-year-old told Middle East Eye.
"As rescue missions continue and they clear more streets, there will be more work for all of us to do. This will take a very long time. It's heartbreaking."
Buildings and cars in Gemmayzeh, an area close to Beirut Port, were heavily damaged by Tuesday's explosion.
Turkey is sending a search and rescue team, emergency medical staff and plans to establish a field hospital in Lebanon.
MEE's Turkey correspondent Ragip Soylu reports that Ankara has said it plans to ship emergency humanitarian aid, medicine and 400 tonnes of grain to the country.
The hashtag "hang the nooses" started trending on Twitter in Lebanon as anger mounts over government corruption after the Beirut bomb blast.
Over 16,100 people have used the hashtag with some using it to share images of loved ones lost in the explosion.
Lebanon's cabinet decides to place Beirut port officials under house arrest pending investigations into the port blast.
The international community has rushed to express its solidarity with Lebanon after Tuesday’s explosion - with a number of states offering to send aid.
MEE has compiled a list of reactions from a number of states, which you can read here.
Most notably, French President Emmanuel Macron is headed to Beirut on Thursday; US President Donald Trump makes unsubstantiated comments alluding to an attack; and Israel makes a controversial offer of aid.
An official source told Reuters that the Beirut port blast was a result of years of inaction and negligence over the storage of highly explosive material.
The official source told Reuters: "It is negligence" and that the issue had gone before several committees and judges where "nothing was done" to remove the material.
The source added that a fire started at port warehouse 9 on Tuesday and spread to port warehouse 12 where the Ammonium Nitrate was stored.
Another source close to a port employee said a team that inspected the material six months ago warned it could “blow up all of Beirut” if not removed.
Lebanon's economic minister Raoul Nehme told Reuters that Lebanon had been left with less than a month's reserves of grain after the blast on Tuesday.
Nehme added that Lebanon had enough flour to avoid a crisis but said the country needed three months worth of reserves to ensure food security.
Videos posted online show protestors throwing rocks and attacking the convoy of Lebanese Prime Minister Saad Hariri in downtown Beirut.
Local security forces could be seen violently holding back protestors as they voice their anger and frustration at the country's dire situation.
Ammonium nitrate an industrial chemical commonly used for fertilisers, but also as an explosive, often used in mining.
The chemical, known by the formula NH4NO3, is a naturally white crystalline solid and is often known as saltpetre.
Under most conditions ammonium nitrate is not necessarily dangerous and is relatively stable - it can even be used to smother a fire.
However, if contaminated it can become highly volatile.
Read more by Alex Macdonald on previous incidents involving Ammonium Nitrate and how it ended up in Beirut Port
Online groups have been set up to find those who have gone missing in the aftermath of the blast.
The Instagram page "Locate victims Beirut" has garnered 70,000 followers and sharing photos of missing people.
Nadda Osman has more details on the online groups
French President Emanuel Macron has confirmed that he will travel to Lebanon on Thursday after the Beirut bomb blasts.
Planet Labs have released the first satellite images of Beirut Port showing the scale of damage.
Lebanon has faced months of economic and political turmoil.
Here's a quick video breaking down what exactly is going on in Lebanon and how Tuesday's blast will only make things worse.
