It felt as if a small nuclear bomb went off in the city, Ahmad Shalha a journalist working in Beirut told Sputnik, commenting on a devastating blast that occurred in the Lebanese capital on 4 August. Shalha and his family were 20 kilometres from the epicentre of the blast, but it was so powerful that windows in the house they were staying at blew out from the shockwave.
"Due to my job as a TV reporter I went quickly to my office in downtown Beirut, an area that is close to the port [where the explosion occurred]. The building was heavily damaged inside and outside. We then took a car to the Beirut port. What we saw was a complete disaster. The port was devastated and there was a huge fire from fuel tanks", Ahmad Shalha told Sputnik.
When he asked eyewitnesses what happened, they told him about three explosions – the first two explosions produced plumes of smoke of different colours. Shalha was told by eyewitnesses that these explosions came from fireworks stored in the tank with nitrate ammonium. This was initially thought to be the cause of the accident, however, later authorities suggested that it might have been caused by explosives, ammonium nitrate, stored in a warehous at the port. The third blast was the one that devastated the city. Shalha was told that the explosion was even heard in neighboring Cyprus.
The accident is extraordinary even for troubled-ridden Lebanon, a country that was mired in a 15-year civil war and fought numerous military conflicts with Israel, said Ahmad Shalha.
"Without a doubt, this bomb will affect Lebanon severely in all ways. More than 100 killed and more than 4,000 injured. Many houses in Beirut were damaged, who will make up for the people in a country living these days in a total collapse?", said Shalha
According to Lebanese officials the blast was caused by 2,750 tonnes of ammonium nitrate, which has been stored at a warehouse since 2014. The chemical compound is used in agriculture and as an explosive. Investigators are now trying to establish what triggered the explosion.
