BEIRUT – Blood stained the asphalt Wednesday morning as the streets of Beirut teemed with rescuers and bystanders a day after a massive explosion killed at least 100 and injured 4,000 people in Lebanon's capital.
Smoke was still rising from the port, where the blast half-destroyed a towering building of silos estimated to house 85% of the nation's grain. Much of downtown was littered with damaged cars, mounds of debris and shattered glass, which shopkeepers tried to clean up.
Angelique Sabounjian, 34, was in a coffeehouse called "sip" in the port area when she heard an initial explosion. She left just as the massive, second explosion happened.
"I felt something hit my head, next thing I know I felt what I could describe as a warm fountain pouring from my head ... we ran to the Red Cross center nearby. I saw bodies on the floor," she said, adding that because she couldn't get help there she tried to go to nearby hospitals, but they were demolished. "I don't know how I got the energy and power to walk further with the blood flowing into my mouth and nostrils."
Eventually, she was helped. Doctors told her she swallowed more than a liter of blood.
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Her graphic account echoes those of others.
"I was sitting on the stairs ... next thing I remember I was on the ground covered with shattered glass and people screaming," said Shehadeh Khalaf, 67, who said he was helped at the hospital but left because there were so many more people in dire need. "I'm still covered in blood."
The blast was felt as far away as Cyprus, and witnesses in the city described the aftermath as "raining glass."
"The first blast happened, and the whole building shook. My mother ran to me, screaming 'earthquake!' That's what we initially thought ... then the second blast happened and all the glass shattered in my house," said Hussein Al Haq, 22, who lives on the outskirts of Beirut. "My mother's still shell-shocked today. If I lose her to the trauma, I'll lose everything."
And yet, these people are the lucky ones. They survived.
Scores of people remain missing, with relatives pleading on social media for help. An Instagram page called “Locating Victims Beirut” shows photos of missing people and the names of missing or wounded people were read on the radio throughout Tuesday night. The death toll is likely to climb.
Cause of the Beirut explosion
An official cause for the most powerful explosion to ever hit the beleagured city remains unknown.
Although President Trump said Tuesday that the explosion looked like an attack, there was no evidence the explosion was an attack. Trump said his source was unspecified U.S. military generals. The Pentagon referred questions about Trump's comments on Beirut to the National Security Council.
Lebanon's Interior Minister Mohammed Fahmi told a local TV station that it appeared the blast was caused by the detonation of more than 2,700 tons of ammonium nitrate that had been stored in a warehouse since it was confiscated from a cargo ship impounded in 2013.
Explosives experts and video footage suggested the ammonium nitrate may have been ignited by a fire at what appeared to be a nearby warehouse containing fireworks.
Ammonium nitrate is a common ingredient in fertilizer as well as explosives. It was used in the Oklahoma City bombing in 1995, when a truck bomb containing 2.4 tons of fertilizer and fuel oil killed 168 people in a federal building.
Prime Minister Hassan Diab, in a short televised speech, promised that the people responsible for the disaster will pay the price, without commenting on the cause.
Search and rescue in Beirut
Security forces cordoned off the port area on Wednesday as a bulldozer entered to help clear away debris. In Beirut’s hard-hit Achrafieh district, civil defense workers and soldiers were working on locating missing people and clearing the rubble.
Many apartment buildings were damaged, potentially leaving 200,000 people homeless, according to Al Jazeera. This comes at a time when the small nation hosts 1 million Syrians displaced by that civil war and many Lebanese have not only lost their jobs but their entire savings due to a currency crisis there.
Elie Khoueiry, a 38-year-old father of two, said he’s had enough.
He estimates the blast caused up to $20,000 worth of damage to his pub, where business was already suffering because of the economic crisis and a coronavirus lockdown.
“If the ruling class wants us to leave, let them give us tickets and we will go,” he said.
Lebanon on the brink
Lebanon's severe economic crisis ignited mass protests in recent months.
Lebanon’s economic crisis is rooted in decades of systemic corruption by political factions that exploit public institutions for the benefit of their supporters. Decades after the civil war, residents endure frequent power outages and poor public services.
Beirut’s port and the customs authority are notoriously corrupt. Like nearly all public institutions, they are controlled by Lebanon’s political factions, including Hezbollah.
On top of that, it's health system fought to contain coronavirus and now there are concerns COVID-19 could spread further with so many wounded overwhelming hospitals.
HISTORY: Even before explosion, Lebanon teetered toward collapse
Saint George University Hospital, one of the major private hospitals in Beirut which had been receiving COVID-19 patients, was out of commission Wednesday after suffering major damage.
Food security is also a concern. Lebanon’s state-run National News Agency quoted Raoul Nehme, the minister of economy and trade, saying Lebanon had enough wheat for its immediate needs and would import more. However, some are concerned about how Lebanon will continue to import nearly all of its vital goods with its main port devastated. Some 80% of Lebanon’s wheat supply is imported, according to the U.S. Agriculture Department.
Several countries have pledged aid in the aftermath of the blast, with even Israel offering humanitarian assistance. The two countries have been in conflict for decades, and Israel fought a 2006 war with the Hezbollah militant group.
Contributing: Associated Press
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