Beirut explosion: Australian among at least 73 killed, 3700 injured as explosion devastates city
At least 73 dead, thousands injured as explosion flattens large parts of the city | WARNING: GRAPHIC
An apocalyptic explosion has destroyed large parts of downtown Beirut, killing at least 73 – including one Australian – and injuring more than 3700 on the eve of a sensitive political court verdict.
About 2750 tonnes of ammonium nitrate was stored in the Beirut port warehouse that exploded, Prime Minister Hassan Diab said.
WATCH: New footage shows the massive explosion in Beirut. At least 40 killed, more than 3,000 injured pic.twitter.com/YCeKYf97ni
— BNO News (@BNONews) August 4, 2020
“It is unacceptable that a shipment of 2750 tonnes of ammonium nitrate has been present for six years in a warehouse, without taking preventive measures,” he said at a defence council meeting, a spokesman told a press conference.
“It is unacceptable and we cannot remain silent on this issue.”
Shocked Beirut City Governor Marwan Aboud said the scale of the damage was so enormous that Beirut was “a disaster city”. He said the blast was a “national disaster akin to Hiroshima’’ and the number of fatalities was expected to skyrocket.
Scott Morrison confirmed the “distressing” news on Wednesday morning that an Australian had been killed in the blast.
“(It) is terribly devastating and obviously, we can’t give more details about the specifics at this time, but our sympathies to all of the people in Lebanon,” the Prime Minister told Channel 7.
See the #Beirut #blast from multiple angles
— CGTN America (@cgtnamerica) August 4, 2020
A massive #explosion rocked Beirut, #Lebanon. The cause of the blast is still unknown, but footage shows it occurred near a #seaport. pic.twitter.com/HsEx84W4UL
Mr Morrison also said the Australian embassy in Beirut was “significantly impacted”.
“All the staff there are well, but the building the embassy is in has been significantly compromised,” he added.
Foreign Minister Marise Payne told Sydney’s 2GB radio station that “about 95 per cent of our windows (at the embassy) were blown out by the impact”.
“A number of staff have received glass injuries, they’re being supported and looked after,” Ms Payne added.
An enormous orange fireball and mushroom cloud of smoke enveloped Beirut, with the shock blast smashing glass, destroying buildings, flattening houses and tossing cars from the nearby motorway as if they were toys.
Local newspaper Al Mayadeen News has reported Lebanese officials asking people to immediately leave the area because of a strange smell and fears the area is covered in dangerous chemicals.
Such is the tense political and dire economic situation in Lebanon, Israel immediately issued a statement saying it was not involved in the disaster.
Iranian-backed Hezbollah also quickly hosed down theories that the explosion was related to a weapons facility or an Israeli strike.
Mr Diab said Wednesday would be a national day of mourning. He warned the people responsible for the explosion would “pay a price”.
“I promise you this catastrophe will not pass without accountability,” he said.
Traumatised witnesses described doors of apartments being blown off, ceilings collapsing and people badly injured by flying glass and exploding car windscreens.
Lebanese Red Cross official Georges Kettaneh called for blood donations, saying there were “hundreds of casualties”.
The closest hospital, St Joseph’s, was destroyed. One doctor said: “They’re bringing people to the hospital but we can’t treat them. They’re leaving them outside in the street. The hospital is broken, the ER is broken.”
The Karantina hospital has shut its doors after accepting 500 badly injured people. Another partially destroyed hospital was treating patients in the car park.
The Australian Lebanese Medical Association’s national president, Dr Wally Ahmar, said the COVID crisis meant fewer Australians were in Lebanon than was usually the case at this time of year.
“Most Australians fled because of the COVID situation and came back to Australia,” he said.
Dr Ahmar said he would speak soon to the country’s health minister, who was a personal friend, about how Australians could help.
Due to the distance and COVID restrictions, it wasn’t feasible to donate medical equipment or medicines, the Monash Medical Centre doctor said.
But the association had launched an urgent appeal to purchase food for those on the ground in Beirut.
Dr Ahmar said the Lebanese sister hospital to Monash Medical Centre, St Georges Hospital, “has been absolutely devastated”.
“Three nurses have died there. Patients are dead. That whole area is catastrophic at the moment,” he said.
He said he had spoken to the head of the International Lebanese Medical Association, a cardiac specialist, who was treating injured children.
“He’s in the emergency department attending to kids, because they’ve called out for all doctors,” Dr Ahmar said.
“It has been all hands on deck, working through the night. His home is completely gone.”
Social media footage from the scene show people in shock wandering around bleeding and screaming, others trapped under rubble and injured from falling debris and shattered glass in the areas of Ashrafiyeh and the historic Gemmayze. The districts of Mar Mkhayel and Hamra are covered in debris.
A photographer for The Australian, Stephen Kelly, who lives downtown, said his building shook ferociously, but thankfully he and his young family were okay.
Leila Molana-Allen, a reporter for France 24 who lives near the port area of Gemmayzeh, initially believed a missile from a jet blew her apartment apart.
“All the buildings in my block are destroyed. Huge explosion in #Beirut. Everyone covered in glass and blood,” she tweeted, and later reported she had a fairly serious foot injury.
I have a fairly serious foot injury that's bleeding quite badly, but hospitals full w/ much more serious injuries than mine & I don't want to block them. Is there a doctor who could advise me on what to go until I can get stitches? Wrapped & elevated for now.#beirutexplosion
— Leila Molana-Allen (@Leila_MA) August 4, 2020
Al Jazeera’s Timour Azhari said the port looked like a wasteland.
“Cars (from the ground) were thrown three floors up onto roofs of factories here,” Azhari said.
“Rescue services have not been able to reach the actual site of the explosion yet because fires are still raging.’’
Azhari spoke to the captain of an Italian civilian ship, the Orient Queen, docked near the blast site.
“He was covered in blood after the explosion threw him across a room of his ship. Several people on board were wounded and taken to hospital,’’ he said.
The blast flattened the port area and was felt in Cyprus, 230km away.
The immediate vicinity of the blast included government buildings, residential towers, hotels — stunning residents, despite the fact those areas of Beirut have seen car bombs and assassinations over the years.
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Mr Hariri’s son, the former prime minister Saad Hariri who lives near the explosion, was safe, his political party reported. The British foreign office said it was closely monitoring developments.
The disaster could not have come at a worse time for Lebanon, which is facing economic collapse brought about by political turmoil, financial instability, a plunging currency and coronavirus.
Footage from inside a hospital in Beirut. pic.twitter.com/Gz32yFuzng
— Ali S. Harfouch (@asharfouch) August 4, 2020
Governor Aboud broke down in tears at the site as he expressed fears for a unit of firefighters who were dealing with the initial fire at the port.
“They came to fight the fire, and then they vanished,” he said. “We don’t know where they are. We’re here to look for them.
“This reminds me of what happened in Japan, to Hiroshima and Nagasaki. I’ve never seen damage of this size and width, and so catastrophic. This is a national catastrophe. This is a problem for Lebanon and we don’t know how we’re going to get out of it.
“This is a lot. It’s a lot all at once for people”
Trump: A terrible attack … a bomb of some kind
US President Donald Trump said that US generals had told him that the powerful explosions which rocked Beirut appeared to have been caused by a “bomb of some kind.”
“It looks like a terrible attack,” Trump told reporters at the White House.
“It would seem like it, based on the explosion,” Trump said. “I met with our generals and they feel that it was.
“This was not some kind of a manufacturing explosion type of event,” he said. “It seems to be, according to them — they would know better than I would — but they seem to think it was an attack.
“It was a bomb of some kind.”
France, the UK and Iran have offered assistance to Lebanon — which before the disaster was already in crisis, limiting daily electricity to just two to four hours a day and with a currency that had plunged 80 per cent.
British prime minister Boris Johnson said: “The pictures and videos from Beirut tonight are shocking. All of my thoughts and prayers are with those caught up in this terrible incident. The UK is ready to provide support in any way we can, including to those British nationals affected.”
With AFP
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