Beirut blast death toll rises to 100 with more fatalities feared

The Lebanese government said it was putting an unspecified number of Beirut port officials under house arrest as it began an investigation into how 2,750 tons of ammonium nitrate came to be stored at the port for years, seemingly turning it into a time bomb.

From his home three miles outside the city, Nabil Allam, the financial manager of a Beirut hospital shattered in the blasts, turned to his wife as the explosions lighted up the sky.

“It’s Hiroshima,” he told her.

The losses were staggering. The Lebanese Red Cross said any additional bodies found in the rubble must be taken to Beirut’s morgues directly, because hospitals could no longer cope. Marwan Abboud, the city’s governor, said that as many as a quarter of a million people have been left homeless and that the destruction could take up to $5 billion to repair.

As the sun rose, the scene at the port was almost apocalyptic, with smoke hanging above a crater gouged from the land running down to the sea, and only one side of the warehouse still standing. A silo that provided most of Lebanon’s wheat supply was ripped open.

Red Cross workers were still scouring the wrecked and deserted streets in neighborhoods adjoining the port early Wednesday, calling out for residents who might be trapped and injured. At least 4,000 people were wounded, the organization said.

There are bodies in the rubble and in the waters of the port. Families put out frantic calls for missing loved ones across social media. In the once-vibrant Gemmayze district, Simon Abegi, who works at the popular Cyrano bar, said he was searching for a young colleague, Rawan Mysto. When he regained consciousness after the explosions, he had seen her covered in blood and lying amid shattered glass.

“Some guys came by and picked her up. We’ve been to all the hospitals, and there’s no sign,” he said. “We don’t know if she’s alive.”

In residential neighborhoods near the port, the atmosphere was one of shell shock. Historical arched facades were piles of rubble and rebar. Dazed residents were staggering amid the ruin. Young volunteers who had arrived from outside Beirut to aid in the cleanup appeared stunned at the devastation. “There’s nothing to say,” said one woman, as she swept glass carpeting the street.

Questions and anger will follow. There were many indications that the blasts may have been a tragic accident. Interior Minister Mohammed Fahmi said it appeared that stocks of ammonium nitrate, a fertilizer that can be used in bombmaking, had ignited.

Prime Minister Hassan Diab linked the explosions to 2,700 tons of the dangerous chemical that had been stored at the port since 2014, despite warnings from port officials that the material was not safe.

In the central Martyrs Square, protesters gathered shortly after midday, some of them in tears. On social media, there were calls for larger demonstrations Wednesday evening.

On a nearby road linking eastern and western Beirut, a man walked past the backed-up cars holding a sign demanding the execution of the country’s head of customs, Badri Daher.

“I promise you that this catastrophe will not pass without accountability … Those responsible will pay the price,” Diab said in a televised speech the night before. “Facts about this dangerous warehouse that has been there since 2014 will be announced, and I will not preempt the investigations.”

Lebanon was already in the throes of economic collapse, accelerated by nationwide protests over a government widely viewed as corrupt and incompetent. Bailout talks with the International Monetary Fund have repeatedly broken down, and senior Lebanese officials have resigned, claiming that negotiators are not serious about meeting the conditions for a deal, even as hundreds of thousands of Lebanese are pushed deeper into poverty.

In the Rosary Sisters’ Hospital, patients had been evacuated in the darkness after the blasts shook its walls. Remnants of the scramble were strewn across the sidewalk. Gurneys had been abandoned. A bloody pillow lay on the street. “What more can we take,” asked Allam, the finance manager who had watched the explosions from his home the night before.

“We have a financial crisis. We have a political crisis. We have a health-care crisis, and now this.”

One member of the hospital staff had been killed, and 10 were injured.

“Do you think the politicians can handle this crisis? This crisis is bigger than the politicians,” Allam said.

As the tiny nation reeled, Diab appealed for global help to stanch the suffering. French President Emmanuel Macron was scheduled to arrive in Beirut on Thursday. The European Union said it was activating its civil protection system to round up emergency workers and equipment from across the 27-nation bloc. A video shared on social media showed French firefighters already at Charles de Gaulle Airport in Paris, preparing to assist.

The explosions coincide with mounting tensions between Israel and the Lebanese Shiite militia Hezbollah, which maintains a facility at the port and has long been accused by U.S. officials of using it to smuggle weapons into Lebanon.

An Israeli official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to brief reporters, said Israel had no role in the Beirut explosions. Israeli Defense Minister Benny Gantz and Foreign Minister Gabi Ashkenazi offered the Lebanese government medical and humanitarian aid, as well as immediate emergency assistance, via international intermediaries because Israel and Lebanon are in a state of war and have no official contact.

In a statement offering condolences to the families of the dead and injured, Hezbollah did not apportion blame. It called the incident a “huge national tragedy” and urged Lebanese to unite to overcome the ordeal.

At a news conference, President Trump called the explosion a “terrible attack” and said U.S. generals seemed to feel that it was the result of a “bomb of some kind.” But military officials said they had yet to make a solid assessment of the explosions.

Crisis-stricken Lebanon, with its currency crashing and rising numbers of coronavirus infections, is poorly positioned to cope with another disaster, especially on this scale. At least two hospitals were badly damaged in the explosions, and TV footage showed staff evacuating patients to alternative hospitals that were themselves swamped — in the dark, because the city had no electricity. 

The Red Cross told all ambulances across the country to head to Beirut to report for duty.

The damage was spread across a wide arc. Windows were blown out and check-in counters were damaged at Beirut’s airport, several miles from the site of the explosions. Doors were blown open and windows rattled at the U.S. Embassy, more than six miles away.

Health officials warned that the explosions left a toxic cloud of nitrous oxide hanging over the city and told residents to wear masks and stay indoors. The U.S. Embassy issued a similar warning in a message to U.S. citizens. “There are reports of toxic gases released in the explosion so all in the area should stay indoors and wear masks if available,” the message said.

Loveluck reported from Baghdad.