BEIRUT — Security forces fired tear gas and clashed with stone-throwing demonstrators Saturday in Lebanon’s capital amid mounting fury over the massive explosion that devastated much of the city and killed nearly 160 people. Dozens were still missing and around 5,000 people injured.
The explosion was fueled by thousands of tons of ammonium nitrate that had been improperly stored at the city’s port for more than six years. Apparently set off by a fire, it was by far the biggest blast in Lebanon’s troubled history and caused an estimated $10 billion to 15 billion in damage, according to Beirut’s governor. It also destroyed 6,200 buildings and left hundreds of thousands of people homeless.
Activists who called for the protest set up symbolic nooses at Beirut’s Martyrs’ Square to hang politicians whose corruption and negligence they blame for Tuesday’s blast.
“Resignation or hang,†read a banner held by protesters, who also planned to hold a symbolic funeral for the dead.
Khodr Ghadir, 23, said the noose was for everyone who has been in power for the last 30 years. “What happened was a spark for people to return to the streets.”
A placard listed the names of the dead, printed over a photo of the blast’s enormous pink mushroom cloud. “We are here for you,†it read.
As the protest got underway, small groups of young men began throwing stones at security forces. Near parliament, riot police fired tear gas at some who tried to jump over barriers that closed the road leading to the legislature. The demonstrators later set on fire a truck that was fortifying barriers on a road leading to parliament.
The Red Cross reported that it had taken 32 wounded to hospitals and treated 110 casualties on the ground in downtown Beirut.
The gathering at Martyrs’ Square and outside the parliament building and government headquarters came amid popular anger against Lebanon’s political leadership. The country’s ruling class, made up mostly of former civil war-era leaders, is blamed for incompetence and mismanagement that contributed to Tuesday’s explosion.
Lebanese Prime Minister Hassan Diab addressed the nation on Saturday and called for early parliamentary elections and for an investigation into the material at the center of the explosion.
“I call on all parties to agree on the next stage, and I am ready to assume responsibility for two months until they agree, and I will present Monday to the cabinet to hold early parliamentary elections,” Diab said.
The staggering devastation caused by the explosion came on top of an economic and financial crisis that has led to the collapse of the Lebanese currency against the dollar, hyperinflation and soaring poverty and unemployment.
The state, which is investigating the cause of the blast, has been conspicuously absent from the ravaged streets of Beirut, with almost zero involvement in the cleanup, which has been left to teams of young volunteers with brooms who fanned out to sweep up broken glass and reopen roads.
The protest came as senior officials from the Middle East and Europe arrived in a show of solidarity with the tiny country that is still in shock.
In a show of anger, the president of the Christian opposition Kataeb party said its three legislators have decided to resign from Parliament over the disaster. Sami Gemayel called on every “honorable†member of parliament to step down and work for the “birth of a new Lebanon.â€
A senior Kataeb party official was killed in the blast. Also killed were 43 Syrians, the country’s embassy in Beirut said. Lebanon is home to some 1 million Syrian refugees.
The Dutch foreign ministry said Saturday that Hedwig Waltmans-Molier, the wife of the Netherlands’ ambassador to Lebanon, had also died from injuries suffered in the explosion.
Documents that surfaced after the blast showed that officials had been repeatedly warned for years that the presence of 2,750 tons of ammonium nitrate at the port posed a grave danger, but no one acted to remove it. Officials have been blaming one another, and 19 people have been detained, including the port’s chief, the head of Lebanon’s customs department and his predecessor.
“We will support Lebanon through all available means,†Ahmed Aboul Gheit, the secretary-general of the 22-member Arab League told reporters after meeting President Michel Aoun on Saturday morning. Aboul Gheit said he would take part in a donors conference for Lebanon in France on Sunday and convey Lebanon’s demands to the international community.
Later on Saturday, the president of the European Council, Charles Michel, arrived in Beirut for a brief visit. Turkey’s vice president and the country’s foreign minister met Aoun and said that Ankara was ready to help rebuild Beirut’s port and evacuate some of the wounded to Turkey for treatment.
At the site of the blast, workers continued searching for dozens of missing people. Bulldozers were also seen removing debris near a cluster of giant grain silos that were heavily damaged but still partly standing.
International aid has been flowing to Lebanon for days, and several field hospitals have been set up around Beirut to help treat the wounded.
President Donald Trump said Friday that he had spoken by telephone with Aoun and French President Emmanuel Macron, who paid a brief visit to Lebanon on Thursday. Trump noted that medical supplies, food and water were being sent from the United States, along with emergency responders, technicians, doctors and nurses.
The ammonium nitrate, a chemical used in fertilizers and explosives, originated from a cargo ship called MV Rhosus that had been traveling from the country of Georgia to Mozambique in 2013. It made an unscheduled detour to Beirut as the Russian shipowner was struggling with debts and hoped to earn some extra cash in Lebanon. Unable to pay port fees and reportedly leaking, the ship was impounded.
In 2014, the material was moved from the ship and placed in a warehouse at the port where it stayed until the explosion.
