The Beirut explosion on Tuesday, has recorded over a hundred dead and thousands injured, with properties destroyed as rescue workers continue to search rubble for reported missing persons.
According to the report by BBC, President Michel Aoun who spoke on the Beirut explosion, said that the blast was caused by 2,750 tonnes of ammonium nitrate stored unsafely in a warehouse.
Ammonium nitrate is used as a fertiliser in agriculture and as an explosive. The whole city was shaken by the explosion and a mushroom cloud could be seen spreading over the port area.
President Michel Aoun scheduled an urgent cabinet meeting for Wednesday, and said a two-week state of emergency should be declared on the Beirut explosion.
The country will observe an official period of mourning for three days from Wednesday.
The explosion occurred just after 18:00 (15:00 GMT) on Tuesday after a fire at the port.
The blast was also felt 240km (150 miles) away on the island of Cyprus, in the eastern Mediterranean, with people there saying they thought it was an earthquake.
The head of Lebanon’s Red Cross, George Kettani, described it as a “huge catastrophe”, adding: “There are victims and casualties everywhere.”
His organisation said that a search and rescue operation was still under way to locate the more than 100 people missing.
The head of Rafik Hariri University Hospital in Beirut, Firass Abiad, told the BBC there had been “extremely chaotic” scenes in the aftermath of the blast.
“We had tens of casualties arriving at the emergency room at the same time and initially they were mainly people who had injuries from glass,” he said.
“We are hoping to find survivors although the hope is getting dimmer by the minute.”
Officials said that an investigation was under way to find the exact trigger which caused the ammonium nitrate which had reportedly been stored in a warehouse after it was unloaded from a ship impounded at the port in 2013 – to explode.
