5 Aug 2020

Beirut warehouse of explosives 'like a ticking bomb'

From Checkpoint, 6:06 pm on 5 August 2020

Warning: Details in this report may be disturbing to some viewers.

It was an explosion so massive it registered on the richter scale, the measure used to quantify the force of earthquakes. Dozens of people have been killed and at least 4,000 injured after an enormous blast at Beirut's seaport.

It is believed thousand of tonnes of ammonium nitrate, which had been stored at a warehouse, exploded sending ripping through nearby residential neighbourhoods - flattening building, tossing cars into the air and shattering glass for kilometres.

An initial smaller explosion appears to have drawn curious on-lookers closer to the site - before the second catastrophic blast.

Middle East correspondent for the Independent Bel Trew lives in Beirut.

She describes to Lisa Owen what happened, in the city that's already reeling from an economic crisis and a surge in coronavirus cases.