BEIRUT: The mega-blast that tore through Lebanon‘s capital with the force of an earthquake, killing more than 100 people and injuring over 4,000, resulted from the ignition of a huge depot of ammonium nitrate at Beirut‘s port, officials say, but many questions remain.
Here is what we know so far:
*An initial large explosion in the port area of Beirut took place around 6: 00 pm (1500 GMT), resulting in a fire, several small blasts and then a colossal explosion that flattened the harbour front and surrounding buildings.
*Seismologists measured the event, which blew out windows at the city’s international airport nine kilometres (more than five miles) away, as the equivalent of a 3.3-magnitude earthquake.
*Video stills show an intense blazing fireball rising above a line of massive storage silos, then a billowing cloud towering into the sky as a powerful shockwave rips through Lebanon’s biggest city.
*Lebanon’s Prime Minister Hassan Diab said 2,750 tonnes of ammonium nitra