“I have seen hell today”: Sydney man reports from inside Beirut blast
Scott Morrison has confirmed that one Australian is one of dozens who have died and thousands who have been injured in an explosion in the Lebanese capital of Beirut.
The area has now been declared a “disaster zone” and as of Wednesday morning, Lebanon’s health minister says the death toll has reached 78.
Reuters reports that nearly 4000 people have been seriously injured.
While it has not been made clear why exactly the blast in the city’s port occurred, however Lebanon’s PM says a ticking time bomb of 2750 tonnes of fertiliser fertiliser chemical ammonium nitrate was stored on a Beirut dock that fuelled the “nuclear like” explosion.
Lebanese officials report that the explosive chemicals had been stored there for six years without adequate safeguards.
“It’s my deep regret to inform you that one Australian has been killed in this horrific blast, we obviously can’t confirm details of that at this stage because there’s contacts with families and others,” Mr Morrison said.
“But our hearts go out to all of those in Lebanon and in Beirut in particular at the moment, you can see from the images of the blasts that it’s just absolutely devastating.”
There are 20,000 Australians in Lebanon at any one time, but that number may have significantly decreased because of the COVID pandemic.
The Australian Embassy in Beirut is a short distance from the blast and was damaged, but no staff were seriously injured.
A Sydney man and his 28-year-old daughter were rescued from the explosion when they ran from a café near the port that they were drinking coffee in when they heard the first blast.
“We ran outside to see what was happening. I said to my daughter and friends ‘duck’. I heard something like an aeroplane I thought there was going to be an attack,” he told reporters.
“I saw this big white wave come towards us. The explosion was deafening. Then we heard the buildings collapsing one after another. The noise was deafening.
“The explosion came from the other side of the cafe. The chairs where we were sitting were gone. The tables were gone everything inside was just gone.
“I have seen hell today. People are walking the streets like zombies.
“We are now driving around giving out water and taking pallets of water and medication to the hospitals. They don’t have enough supplies for their staff.”
Reports say the explosion shattered window up to one kilometre away from the blast site.
The eruption was so loud, it could be heard as far away as Cyprus, 200km away in the Mediterranean Sea.