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Massive explosion shocks Beirut, capital city of Lebanon


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LONDON -- Beirut, the capital of Lebanon, was rocked by a massive explosion on Tuesday evening, with footage from the ground showing significant damage and plumes of smoke rising above the city.

Two explosions occurred in Beirut's port, potentially injuring dozens, according to the AFP. Firefighters were seen battling flames at the scene of the blast. It is not yet known what caused the explosions.

The Lebanese Health Minister reportedly said there were a "very high number of injuries."

 

Ghada Alsharif, a reporter from the Daily Star, one of Lebanon's most prominent news outlets, posted a video on social media showing significant damage within the newspaper's office building. Firefighters were seen battling flames at the scene of the blast. It is not yet known what caused the explosion.

The Lebanese Red Cross have dispatched 30 teams to the scene and are making an urgent call for blood donations.

Other eyewitnesses said there are multiple fires still burning and that windows of apartment buildings were shattered in a large radius around the blast site. Video from the ground in Beirut shows cars crushed by rubble, injured people walking through debris and extensive damage to nearby buildings.

 

https://abcnews.go.com/International/massive-explosion-shocks-beirut/story?id=72167623

Reports are saying the port may have housed fireworks. Reports are saying at least 78 dead, over 3000 wounded.
You can see and hear the fireworks better in the beginning of this video
I'd imagine the first explosion was fireworks but the ammonium nitrate was responsible for the second larger explosion
Edited by Where's Wellwood
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Slow down those videos....you're literally watching tenements and apartments vaporized....the entire ground is lifted and chunks of pavement are just gone.

 

This is insane wow

 

 

Edited by Warhippy
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9 minutes ago, nuckin_futz said:

"Reports say that the first explosion was caused by fire in vessel loaded with fireworks. Second explosion was caused by nearby vessel loaded with nitrate."

 

**********************

 

The above is just speculation at this point.

If you watch the video, that speculation seems to be highly plausible.  You can see what looks like fireworks going off and fires before the large major explosion.

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29 minutes ago, Tre Mac said:

I know the numbers are early but I was expecting casualties in the thousands - hundreds injured obviously but only reporting dozens killed.  

Sadly, it seems your expected numbers are likely going to the end result. Seems every two minutes, the official death toll increases. Latest total I saw (via Lebanese health ministry) was 50 killed and 2750 injured. And unofficial reports of 100+ dead and 4000+ injured. 

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The condensation cloud from that explosion was massive. Can see in the videos how it rides the shock wave until it dissipates. Haven't seen anything like that in a long time, especially in a dense urban area.


Obviously awful from a human standpoint. Really hoping there weren't too many casualties.

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30 minutes ago, SID.IS.SID.ME.IS.ME said:

These are the closest videos I’ve seen to the blast.
 

The one positive, in both cases, you can hear voices or even see people walking around immediately after the explosion, despite them being so close to the blast. 

 

 

 

Dam that's going to knock a lot of people in the water where I doubt they'll have time to recover in time to swim to safely to shore.  

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