Beyond the industrial waterfront, the explosions tore through popular nightlife and shopping districts and densely populated neighborhoods. More than 750,000 people live in the parts of the city that were damaged, and at least 300,000 had been displaced as of Wednesday.
Even before the explosions, Lebanon had been suffering from a series of crises, including the plunging value of its currency, an influx of refugees from neighboring Syria and the coronavirus pandemic. Since last fall, waves of protesters have taken to the streets to vent anger with Lebanon’s political elite over what they consider the mismanagement of the country.
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How big were the blasts?
The second explosion was like an earthquake, witnesses said, and was felt in Cyprus, more than 100 miles away. The seismic waves that the explosion caused were equivalent to a 3.3-magnitude earthquake, according to the United States Geological Survey.
Ammonium nitrate explosions have caused a number of disasters before. A ship carrying about 2,000 tons of the compound caught fire and exploded in Texas City, Texas, in 1947, killing 581 people. About two tons of the chemical were used in the 1995 terrorist bombing of the federal building in Oklahoma City, which killed 168 people.
More recently, an explosion at a factory in the southern French city of Toulouse killed 31 people in 2001. In 2013, 15 people were killed in an explosion at a West Fertilizer Company plant in Texas; and in 2015, more than 150 people were killed at one of China’s busiest seaports, Tianjin, after hundreds of tons of ammonium nitrate, among other chemicals, exploded.
How bad was the damage?
Ceilings collapsed, walls and windows were blown out and debris was found far as two miles from the port. Cars were flipped, and rubble from shattered buildings filled city streets.