The latest information, as of Friday, Aug. 7, indicates that the Aug. 4 explosion at a warehouse at the Beirut port killed at least 150 people, injured thousands more and “caused destruction across half the city,” according to a report by NPR.
And despite initial fears and rumors that the blast was some sort of terrorist attacks, all indications at this point are that it was an accident, “possibly the outcome of neglect on a massive scale,” NPR adds.
The blast happened when an accidental fire in another warehouse at the port reached the warehouse where 2,750 tons of ammonium nitrate was store.
The ammonium nitrated was confiscated in 2013 from a Russian ship owned by a company that couldn’t page port fees and left there unsecured ever