On August 4, 2020, 2750 tons of ammonium nitrate which had been stored at the Port of Beirut for six years exploded after an adjacent warehouse caught fire. The detonation was registered as a seismic event of magnitude 3.3 by the U.S. Geological Survey. The intense shockwaves were felt in Cyprus, Turkey, Syria and Israel. To date, the catastrophic explosion has left over 150 people dead, almost 6000 injured and a reported 300,000 homeless. It is expected that the number of dead and injured will continue to rise as search and rescue operations continue.
As residents of Beirut try to come to grips with the devastation of their city, thousands of people took to the streets of the capital on August 8 to protest the corruption and negligence by their government that led to the tragedy. More than 700 people were injured in clashes with security forces.
EVN Report’s Roubina Margossian will be filing stories and images from Beirut about the human cost of this tragedy.
Sunday, August 9, 2020
Five days after the catastrophic blast, the people of Beirut, Lebanon are still in shock at the devastation of their city.
Photos by Roubina Margossian.
