When did it happen ? On a Tuesday evening video and pictures surfaced the internet on a large explosion, that happened in the centre of Beirut.
Many lives were lost and a lot of people were hurt along with their livelihoods being destroyed, due to the explosion that occurred .
How did it happen ?
President Micheal Aoun, said the explosion happened as their were 2,750 tonnes, of poorly stored ammonium nitrate.Those who don't know what that is, ammonium nitrate is used either as a fertiliser or an explosive.
The Lebanese authorities have suggested that, this highly explosive chemical was seized from a ship six or seven years ago and has been stored in a warehouse ever since , by a counterterrorist expert, who managed to interact with Sky news broadcasters.
This incident was not deliberate but Prime Minister Hassan Diab made a statement and said, “I will not relax until we find the responsible party for what happened, hold it accountable and apply the most serious punishment against it ... because it isn’t acceptable that a shipment of ammonium nitrate - estimated to be 2,750 tons ... was in depot for the past six years without precautionary measures being taken“.
Prime Minister Diab continues in his statement saying “those responsible will pay a price for this catastrophe.”
The explosion had an economical impact, a lot of lives were taken it even was so loud that people in Cyprus could feel it, over 100 miles away. Half the city of Beirut is destroyed due to the explosion, which is $3 billion worth of damage and the number of homeless citizens is up to 300,000.
90% of the hotels in Beirut have been destroyed, as well as hospitals being overwhelmed with patients that have been injured from the explosion and also patients that have been effected by the corona virus.
Hospitals in Israel and Cyprus have offered to take patients in, whilst the EU are looking into what they can do.The EU are looking into sending 100 firefighters, to detect people who are under the rubble who will also use its sati-lights to map the situation, to aid the Beirut authorities.
Australia have donated $2 million to humanitarian aid, to help Lebanon with it being split with help from the UN and the Red Cross. Britain has been working on helping Lebanon’s technical and financial aid, along side with France and their French President Emmanuel Macron, will be flying out to Beirut to offer his support.
Written by Ruona
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