In Lebanon, at least 100 persons have been killed and nearly 4,000 injured after a huge explosion devastated the port area of the capital Beirut on Tuesday.
At the moment rescue workers in Lebanon are still searching through rubble looking for survivors for more than a hundred people who are missing.
President Michel Aoun who has called for an emergency cabinet meeting on Wednesday said that 2,750 tonnes of ammonium nitrate, used in fertilizers and bombs, had been stored for six years at the port without safety measures, a decision he said that was “unacceptable”.
Many Lebanese are expressing immense shock and sadness at the destruction, and great anger towards those who allowed the explosion which sent shockwaves across the capital to happen.
According to BBC an eyewitness Hadi Nasrallah who narrated his ordeal after the explosion said he saw the fire but did not expect the blast. “I lost my hearing for a few seconds, I knew something was wrong, and then suddenly the glass just shattered all over the car, the cars around us, the shops, the stores, the buildings. Just glass going down from all over the building.”
Dazed, weeping and injured people walked through streets searching for relatives as many were also left homeless by the blast, and some residents said their destroyed homes had been burgled in the night as their windows and doors were blown open.
The head of Lebanon’s Red Cross, George Kettani, said at least 100 persons had been killed.
He said “we are still sweeping the area. There could still be victims. I hope not.”
The Lebanese government has said it will observe an official period of mourning for three days from Wednesday.