73 dead & 3,700 injured after 2,750 tonnes of ammonium nitrate exploded in Beirut

Beirut: At least 73 were killed and 3,700 injured following two enormous explosions that rocked the Lebanese capital of Beirut on Tuesday. In a video of the blast, a huge plume of smoke was seen rising into the sky while distant buidings left shaken, sending the city into the panic mode.

Taking cognisance of the matter, Lebanon Prime Minister Hassan Diab said that 2,750 tonnes of ammonium nitrate exploded in the Beirut port warehouse. “It is unacceptable that a shipment of 2,750 tonnes of ammonium nitrate has been present for six years in a warehouse, without taking preventive measures,” AFP quoting him as saying at a defence council meeting.

Online video showed a column of smoke rising from the port area from what appeared to be an initial explosion, followed by a massive blast that sent up a mushroom cloud and a shock wave racing over the city.

Meanwhile, US President Donald Trump said that the Lebanon blasts looked like a terrible attack. “It looks like a terrible attack,” Trump told reporters at the White House.

“This was not some kind of a manufacturing explosion type of event. 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, yes,” AFP quoted him saying. However, Lebanese government has not termed the blasts as “attack”.

It must be noted that the explosion has occurred at a sensitive time for Lebanon, ahead of the verdict of the trial of former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri who was assassinated in February 2005.