Beirut explosion: Lebanon was a country already in turmoil - and then the blast hit
Video report by ITV News Senior International Correspondent John Irvine
When the explosion shook Beirut on Tuesday, it hit a country already in turmoil.
Lebanon was ravaged by an economic crisis and upended by the coronavirus pandemic, even before the blast hit.
The huge explosion at the city’s port was preceded by a huge economic implosion, born out of the government’s incompetence and a failure to heed warnings.
Just hours before the blast, protesters tried to storm the energy ministry to complain about the daily power cuts that blight the country.
Residents took to the streets of Beirut in the months before the port went up, as the value of their money plummeted, unemployment skyrocketed and food supplies dwindled.
And when the coronavirus pandemic entered the country, doctors warned medical supplies were at a critical level and warned of a country on the brink of collapse.
What is ammonium nitrate and how did it likely cause the Beirut blast?
Before and after satellite images show extent of devastation
But Lebanon had not always been in this state – in the 60s and 70s Beirut was regarded as the Paris of the Middle East.
Then came strife – fifteen years of civil war followed by a Syrian occupation and successive governments who practised kleptocracy rather than democracy.
For long periods they couldn't even collect the rubbish let alone keep the lights on.
Finally they couldn't prevent what they knew was a cataclysmic accident waiting to happen.
Public anger is mounting against the ruling elite that is being blamed for the chronic mismanagement and carelessness that led to the disaster.
An investigation is now focusing on how 2,750 tons of ammonium nitrate, a highly explosive chemical used in fertilisers, came to be stored at the facility for six years, and why nothing was done about it.
But some observers believe the international community must now step in to save Lebanon from itself, before any more chaos can continue.