By Tony Winterburn • Published: 06 Aug 2020 • 8:39
A photo has emerged allegedly showing a warehouse in Beirut's dockside piled high with shoddily stacked bags of explosive ammonium nitrate. image: Twitter
Pictures have emerged on social media allegedly showing bags of ammonium nitrate stacked up in the warehouse that exploded in Beirut killing at least 135 people.
The photographs allegedly show bags of ammonium nitrate shoddily stacked into a Beirut port warehouse before it exploded, killing 135 people, the photo shows three men apparently examining one of the bags loaded with explosive in what is believed to be the Lebanese city’s dockside Warehouse 12.
Lebanese authorities have now placed port officials under house arrest and reports have emerged the explosive stash was seized from a mysterious Russian businessman.
Questions are being asked as to how the disaster could be allowed to happen in the first place. Officials blame the explosion on 2,750 tonnes of ammonium nitrate stored in a warehouse although investigations are still ongoing into the true cause.
Lebanon’s leaders have vowed those responsible will “pay the price” after the “nuclear-like” blast killed hundreds and left 300,000 people homeless. Port officials have however pointed the finger at the government as they claimed to have repeatedly warned the authorities of the dangerous cargo at Warehouse 12.
Rescue workers from around the world arrive
International rescue workers and aid have begun arriving in the ruins of Beirut, joining local teams combing the rubble for signs of life after a huge explosion on Tuesday destroyed swaths of Lebanon’s capital.
From Australia to Indonesia to the EU, Russia and the United States, governments mobilised to send in aid ranging from sniffer dogs to a mobile hospital to help a country already struggling with the worst economic crisis in its modern history.
The EU gathered emergency workers and equipment from across the 27-nation bloc, and was urgently sending more than 100 firefighters with vehicles, sniffer dogs and equipment designed to find people trapped in urban areas.
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