Originally thought to be a fire at a fireworks depot, reports and on-the-ground observations now reveal that it was much more.
Syria News(1) reports that the explosion destroyed Beirut Harbour, while the Lebanese Minister of Health assesses the initial toll at 27 killed and 2,500 injured.
Significantly, an Al-Manar reporter is said to have reported that,
“90% of the warehouse of medicine for incurable diseases in the Karentina region was damaged by the #BeirutExplosion ” (2)
In a Twitter discussion, Dr. Marwa Osman indicated that Lebanese politicians stored “tanks containing nitrate” in the area.
(1) Arabi Souri, “Massive Explosion Destroys Beirut Harbor, Hundreds of Casualties”, Syria News, 4 August, 2020.
(https://www.syrianews.cc/massive-explosion-destroys-beirut-harbor-hundreds-of-casualties/) Accessed 4 August, 2020.
(2) See Marwa Osman’s Twitter Feed.
