Two massive explosions hit Beirut on Tuesday, leaving many injured and killing hundreds of people, strewing devastation across multiple neighborhoods and shattering windows for miles around.

The cause of the late afternoon blast was vague, however, senior officials said it appeared that flammable materials stored in a warehouse had caught fire. An earlier, smaller explosion had apparently ignited a fire, then came two secondary blasts, propelling a vast mushroom cloud of pink and yellow smoke over the city.

The casualty toll rose through the evening. A report quoted Health Minister Hamad Hassan as saying as many as 50 may have been killed and over 2,000 injured. Reuters had however reported the death toll to at least 30.

The explosion coincides with mounting tensions between Israel and the Lebanese Shiite militia Hezbollah, which maintains a facility at the port and has long been accused by U.S. officials of using it to smuggle weapons into the country. The explosion follows a series of mysterious blasts at Shiite militia storage sites in Iraq last year that Iraqi and Israeli officials have said Israel was responsible for, and more recently a string of similarly unexplained explosions at military sites and power stations in Iran.

https://theupdates.net/beirut-bombing-nearly-50-people-died-over-2750-injured-health-minister/

saw the video online..very disastrous. catastrophic.. another distractions from covid news