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Beirut, Lebanon
A preliminary investigation has been launched in Beirut into why a tonne of explosive ammonium nitrate was stored in the city’s port for years, which eventually exploded. Some of the port authorities have been placed under house arrest.
The explosion that almost completely destroyed downtown Beirut was huge. According to experts from the University of Sheffield interviewed by the BBC, the explosion was about a tenth the size of the Hiroshima atomic bomb and “arguably one of the largest explosions without nuclear material behind it”.
According to Badri Daher, director of the port customs authorities, customs had repeatedly requested that ammonium nitrate be removed from the port.
“I’ll leave it to the experts to find out why this didn’t happen,” Daher said.
Ammonium nitrate comes from the Moldovan-flagged and Russian-owned vessel Rhosus. The ship was en route from Georgia to Mozambique in 2013 when it received a technical failure and had to call at the port of Beirut.
In Beirut, Rhosus was investigated and was no longer allowed to continue its journey. The ship was threatened with a number of lawsuits, resulting in its owners abandoning the ship in the port of Beirut, the BBC told, referring to the Shiparrested.com website, which lists lawsuits against the ships.
Ammonium nitrate was first on board, from where it was eventually stored. According to port manager Hassan Koraytem, the port authorities were aware that the substance was dangerous, but had not been told it could cause a disaster.
The number of victims is expected to increase
The number of victims of the Beirut blast on Tuesday had risen to 135 on Thursday. However, the clearing work will take a long time, so more victims are likely to be found, as dozens of people are missing.
Local authorities have estimated that the blast left at least 300,000 people homeless and the material damage is in the billions of dollars.
An explosion investigation has also been launched in France. Authorities said on Wednesday that more than 20 French citizens were injured in the blast, according to current data.