Lebanon explosion: Interview rocked by Beirut blast

A chilling live interview during Beirut’s explosion shows a reporter being smashed by the blast, as her interviewees watched in horror.

WARNING: Distressing video footage

A chilling live interview during Beirut’s explosion shows a reporter being smashed by the blast, as her interviewees watched in horror.

BBC News Arabic journalist, Maryam Toumi was in the middle of a video interview when the major blast rocked the city.

There is suddenly an ominous rumbling noise and she stands up. The video shows the camera then being knocked to the floor as a massive explosion hits.

Ms Toumi can be heard screaming and while the camera is still rolling. An alarm sounds and her interviewees watch in horror as she picks her self up.

The interviewees watched in horror as the explosion hit. Picture: BBC

Dozens are feared dead and thousands more are wounded after the massive explosion devastated the capital of Lebanon today.

Terrified onlookers living in Beirut began filming after a fire began raging in a warehouse, with the footage showing a large plume of smoke floating in the air over the city’s port.

Moments later, the same area was hit by a huge explosion, sending an enormous orange fireball into the sky as the smoke formed into a blood-red mushroom cloud.

Retired US nuclear scientist Cheryl Rofer tweeted that the “red cloud” of the massive blast was “very likely ammonium nitrate”, a common agricultural fertiliser that is a highly explosive compound.

Footage from around the city captured the horrific nature of the explosion.

RELATED: Huge blast rocks Beirut

This is so terrifying! The Beirut explosion from a car driving on the road next to the port#Lebanon #BeirutExplosion pic.twitter.com/p8V99136To

— 𝑲𝑰𝑵𝑮 𝑭𝑨𝑹𝑻𝑶𝑴™ 👑 (@KFartom) August 4, 2020

This video makes your heart stop if you know the geography of Beirut. It was taken just outside Electricite du Liban on the city's busiest street for bars and restaurants. A five minute walk from the port. https://t.co/wO9AG1sQJ0

— Josie Ensor (@Josiensor) August 4, 2020

The surrounding area was largely destroyed while large parts of Beirut further afield were damaged.

The blast registered the same energy as a 3.3 magnitude earthquake, the US Geological Survey confirmed, causing distant buildings to shake and their windows to shatter.

Despite the city’s international airport being some 10km away from the blast site, walls and windows were destroyed from the reverberations.

Chunks of a church roof also fell down as the blast wave hit during a mass, being broadcast online.

مطار #بيروت بعد الانفجار#لبنان pic.twitter.com/GKyMeSn9cO

— Akhbar | أخبار الآن (@akhbar) August 4, 2020

The Australian Embassy was also “significantly impacted”, Foreign Minister Marise Payne said.

More than 95 per cent of the windows in the building had been blown out by the explosion and staff were being treated for minor injuries.

The embassy’s proximity to the site of the explosion in Beirut, Lebanon. Picture: Google Earth

Bloodied and dazed wounded stumbled among the debris, glass shards and burning buildings in the centre of the city as Lebanon’s health Minister described it as “a disaster in every sense of the word”.

Prime Minister Scott Morrison earlier said one Australian has been killed in the explosion. He tweeted a message of support to Lebanon this morning.

He also confirmed the building housing the Australian embassy has been “significantly” damaged but staff are well, except for minor injuries.

Terrible scenes out of Beirut after a major explosion. Our hearts go out to those caught up in this tragedy and to our Australian Lebanese community waiting to hear from their loved ones. Australia stands ready to provide our support, including to any Australians affected.

— Scott Morrison (@ScottMorrisonMP) August 4, 2020

Across Beirut, entire streets were wiped out, glass shards littered much of the inner city and the country’s Red Cross called for urgent blood donations.

Helicopters have been hovering over the blaze, dousing water around the city’s port and trying to stop the fire from spreading.

A ship moored off the port was on fire, and the blasts also damaged a ship deployed with United Nations peacekeeping force UNIFIL and injured some of its personnel.

Beirut Before & After pic pic.twitter.com/TDyYMuT3Ki

— Mustaqeem Shaikh (@Mustu_Shk) August 4, 2020

#beirutexplosion#BeirutBlast#Lebanon #BeirutExplosion
Water view of Massive Explosion In Beirut, Lebanon Injuring Thousands #BeirutExplosion #Lebanon pic.twitter.com/lrktrlo7xG

— SANTOSH💞💥 (@santoshkr_08) August 4, 2020

A soldier at the port, where relatives of the missing scrambled for news of their loved ones, told AFP: “It’s a catastrophe inside. There are corpses on the ground. Ambulances are still lifting the dead.”

The blasts were so massive residents living in Nicosia, on the Mediterranean island of Cyprus, reported hearing the blast more than 240km away.

“It was like an atomic bomb,” retired schoolteacher Makrouhie Yerganian told AFP. She has lived near the port for decades.

“I’ve experienced everything, but nothing like this before, even during the country’s 1975-1990 civil war,” she said.

“All the buildings around here have collapsed.”

Her 91-year-old uncle, who lived in the same building, was wounded in the blast and later died.

The cause of the explosions was not immediately clear but a top official, General Security chief Abbas Ibrahim, said confiscated explosive materials had been stored at the city’s port.

“It appears there is a warehouse containing material that was confiscated years ago, and it appears that it was highly explosive material,” he said.

Lebanon’s President Michel Aoun called an urgent meeting of the national defence council, which declared Beirut a disaster zone, while Prime Minister Hassan Diab declared today a day of mourning.

“What happened today will not pass without accountability,” Mr Diab said.

“Those responsible for this catastrophe will pay the price.”

– With AFP