The Lebanese capital, Beirut, was the site of a massive explosion on Tuesday, which authorities say was the result of an industrial accident involving fireworks. Journalists on the ground describe scenes of panic and chaos. Reuters reports that officials say 10 people were killed, though that number is likely to rise.
Videos from the scene appear to show an initial blast at the city’s port followed by a much larger one causing a mushroom cloud over the city:
The blast was reportedly felt miles away, filling the streets with debris and breaking windows:
Given Beirut’s recent history, there was a lot of initial speculation on social media that the explosion was caused by terrorism. Lebanon was already on edge with a verdict expected later this week in the UN-backed trial for four Hezbollah members accused of the 2005 car bombing that killed former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri and 21 others. There’s also been recent fighting between Hezbollah, the Lebanon-based Shiite militia group, and Israel on both the Israel-Lebanon border and in Syria.
But Lebanon’s state media say that terrorism was not involved and that the disaster was caused by a fire at a warehouse for firecrackers. Some videos do show what look like fireworks or firecrackers exploding shortly before the second blast:
This might seem like a far-fetched explanation, but fireworks explosions can be huge. One in the Netherlands in 2000 killed 23 people and destroyed 400 homes. An explosion at a fireworks market near Mexico City killed 31 people in 2016. It’s also possible that another nearby industrial facility was ignited by the initial blast. Freelance journalist Abby Sewell quotes a Lebanese Army source saying that the second blast happened after fire spread to a “nitrate warehouse”—the type of facility that caused the massive 2015 explosion at the port of Tianjin, China.
Even if the Beirut explosion was an accident, it’s still fair to blame Lebanon’s sociopolitical situation for worsening the damage. The country is in the midst of a crippling and unprecedented economic crisis, with hyperinflation, collapsing infrastructure, and shortages of everything from food, to electricity, to fuel, to medicine. Hospitals have been struggling to stay open amid the COVID-19 epidemic. The crisis has generally been blamed on years of official corruption and mismanagement. This led to massive protests last year, but the country’s fractured and sectarian divided political class has been unable to enact the kind of reforms needed to either address the crisis or attract international aid.
This kind of chaos not only makes industrial accidents more likely—it will make caring for the wounded and repairing the damage that much more difficult.
from Slate Magazine https://ift.tt/30saw9K
via IFTTT
沒有留言:
張貼留言