Protesters storm government buildings as public anger grows over deadly Beirut explosion
Public fury over this week’s massive explosion in Beirut has taken a new turn on Saturday as protesters stormed government institutions and clashed for hours with security forces.
A police officer has died and almost 200 hundred people have been injured in the anti-government protests following a devastating explosion in Beirut.
Lebanon police fired tear gas and clashed with demonstrators in the capital at the start of a planned protest in the central Martyrs' Square over this week’s massive explosion.
Thousands of people poured into capital’s main square, where they set up symbolic nooses to 'hang' politicians whose corruption and negligence they blame for Tuesday’s explosion at the Port of Beirut.
The explosion has devastated large parts of Beirut and killed more than 150 people.
The huge blast was caused by thousands of tons of ammonium nitrate improperly stored at the port for more than six years, apparently set off by a fire.
What is ammonium nitrate and how did it likely cause the Beirut blast?
Exclusive: 'People have a right to be furious,' says Lebanon prime minister Hassan Diab
The planned protest comes on the same day the prime minister of Lebanon told ITV News he's not "afraid" of people's anger in the country - but won't say when he'll join protesters on the streets.
PM Hassan Diab said Lebanese residents had a "right" to be furious after "decades of unbelievable corruption.
Speaking to ITV News Correspondent Emma Murphy, Mr Diab said: "Absolutely they have a right to be furious.
"Not just because of this, this is absolutely diabolical what happened, but they were furious even before that for three decades of unbelievable corruption."
But when asked when if he'll be going on to the streets to speak to people, his reply was that he was "not sure".
The explosion was the biggest in Lebanon’s history and caused an estimated £7.6 billion-£11.5 billion worth of damage, according to Beirut’s governor.
It also left hundreds of thousands of people homeless.
The protest Saturday was the first significant demonstration since the explosion and organisers planned to hold a symbolic funeral for the dead.
As the protest got under way however, small groups of young men began throwing stones at security forces.
Near parliament, riot police fired tear gas at protesters who hurled stones and tried to jump over barriers that closed the road leading to the parliament buildings.
The protesters later set fire to a lorry that was fortifying barriers on a road leading to parliament.
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 widespread corruption, incompetence and mismanagement that contributed to Tuesday’s explosion.
The army issued a statement reminding the protesters to act peacefully and abstain from closing roads or attacking public or private property.
Police also issued a statement after the protests began urging people to act “in a civilised way far away from violence”.
The protest came as senior officials from the Middle East and Europe arrived in Lebanon in a show of solidarity with the tiny country that is still in shock suffered after the blast.
The Dutch foreign ministry said Saturday that Hedwig Waltmans-Molier, the wife of the Netherlands’ ambassador to Lebanon, had also died of injuries sustained in the blast.
Documents that surfaced after the blast showed that for years officials had been repeatedly warned 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 since the explosion and 19 people have been detained including the port’s chief, 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.
Mr 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 arrived Saturday and met Mr Aoun, saying that Ankara was ready to help rebuild Beirut’s port and evacuate some of the wounded from Lebanon to Turkey for treatment.
At the site of the blast in Beirut’s port, workers were still searching for dozens of missing people. Bulldozers were also seen removing debris near the giant grain silos that are 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.
The ammonium nitrate, a chemical used in fertilisers and explosives, originated from a cargo ship called MV Rhosus that had been travelling from 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.
In 2014, the material was moved from the ship and placed in a warehouse at the port where it stayed until the explosion.