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WORLD NEWS Wednesday 5 august 2020
AT PRESS TIME:

Massive Beirut blast kills more than 60, injures thousands

By BASSEM MROUE and lined with wrecked
Associated Press cars. Motorcyclists picked
BEIRUT (AP) — A massive their way through traffic,
explosion rocked Beirut on carrying the injured.
Tuesday, flattening much One woman covered in
of the port, damaging blood from the waist up
buildings across the capital walked down a trashed
and sending a giant mush- street while talking furiously
room cloud into the sky. on her phone. On another
More than 60 people were street, a woman with a
killed and more than 3,000 bloodied face looked dis-
injured, with bodies buried traught, staggering through
in the rubble, officials said. traffic with two friends at
Hours later, ambulances still her side.
carried away the wounded "This country is cursed," a
as army helicopters helped young man passing by
battle fires raging at the muttered.
port. The blast came at a time
The sudden devastation when Lebanon's econo-
overwhelmed a country al- my is facing collapse from
ready struggling with both the financial crisis and the
the coronavirus pandemic coronavirus restrictions.
and an economic crisis: Many have lost jobs, while
Beirut hospitals quickly filled the worth of their savings
beyond capacity, plead- has evaporated as the cur-
ing for blood supplies and Wounded people are evacuated after a massive explosion in Beirut, Lebanon, Tuesday, Aug. 4, rency has plunged in value
generators to keep their 2020. against the dollar. The re-
lights on. Associated Press sult has thrown many into
The cause of the blast, poverty.
which sparked fires, over- authorized to discuss the dead and more than 3,000 at the port, sending up a It also occurred amid ris-
turned cars and blew out matter with the media. Is- wounded. Emergency giant column of smoke, illu- ing tensions between Israel
windows and doors, was raeli officials usually do not teams streamed in from minated by flashes of what and the militant Hezbol-
not immediately known. comment on "foreign re- across Lebanon to help, appear to be fireworks. lah group along Lebanon's
Abbas Ibrahim, chief of ports." and the injured had to be Local TV stations reported southern border.
Lebanese General Secu- The blast was stunning even taken to hospitals outside that a fireworks warehouse The explosion was reminis-
rity, said it might have been for a city that has seen civil the capital. Hamad added was involved. cent of massive blasts dur-
caused by highly explosive war, suicide bombings and that hospitals were barely The fire then appeared to ing Lebanon's civil war and
material that was confis- bombardment by Israel. It coping and offers of aid catch at a nearby build- took place only three days
cated from a ship some could be heard and felt as were pouring in from Arab ing, triggering a more mas- before a U.N.-backed tribu-
time ago and stored at the far away as Cyprus, more states and friends of Leba- sive explosion, sending up nal was set to give its ver-
port. Local television chan- than 200 kilometers (180 non. a mushroom cloud and a dict in the killing of former
nel LBC said the material miles) across the Mediter- Some of those injured lay shock wave. Prime Minister Rafik Hariri
was sodium nitrate. ranean. on the ground at the port, Charbel Haj, who works at in a truck bombing more
Witnesses reported seeing "It was a real horror show. I Associated Press staff at the port, said it started as than 15 years ago. That ex-
a strange orange-colored haven't seen anything like the scene said. A civil de- small explosions like fire- plosion, with a ton of explo-
cloud over the site after the that since the days of the fense official said there crackers. Then, he said, he sives, was felt miles away,
explosion. Orange clouds (civil) war," said Marwan were still bodies inside the was thrown off his feet by just like Tuesday's explosion.
of toxic nitrogen dioxide Ramadan, who was about port, many under debris. the huge blast. His clothes Several of Beirut's hospi-
gas often accompany an 500 meters (yards) from the Beirut's governor, Marwan were torn. tals were damaged in the
explosion involving nitrates. port and was knocked off Abboud, broke into tears Miles from the port, building blast. Roum Hospital put
An Israeli government of- his feet by the force of the as he toured the site, say- facades were shredded, out a call for people to
ficial said Israel "had noth- explosion. ing, "Beirut is a devastated balconies were knocked bring it spare generators to
ing to do" with the blast. He Health Minister Hassan city." down and windows shat- keep its electricity going as
spoke on condition of ano- Hamad said the prelimi- Initially, video taken by resi- tered. Streets were cov- it evacuated patients be-
nymity because he was not nary toll was more than 60 dents showed a fire raging ered with glass and bricks cause of heavy damage.q
Researchers say U.K. faces a Brexit brain drain to the E.U.

LONDON (AP) — The num- tics by the Oxford in Berlin ber of U.K. arrivals, followed mained relatively stable the automatic right of the
ber of Britons moving to research partnership and by France. "These increases during the same period, bloc's citizens to move to
European Union coun- the Berlin-based WZB So- in numbers are of a mag- the researchers found. the U.K., and of Britons to
tries soared after the Brexit cial Science Center found nitude that you would ex- The number of Britons seek- live and work across Eu-
vote in 2016, according to that migration from the pect when a country is hit ing passports from EU na- rope. Britain left the EU in
a U.K.-German study re- United Kingdom to other by a major economic or tions also soared by more January, though it remains
leased Tuesday — an exo- EU countries rose by 30%, political crisis," report co- than 500%. In Germany it bound by the bloc's rules —
dus comparable to those from about 57,000 a year author Daniel Auer said. was up 2,000%. including the right to free-
caused by major social or in 2008-2015 to more than Migration among the 27 British voters opted nar- dom of movement — dur-
economic crises. 73,000 a year in 2016-2018. countries that now remain rowly in a 2016 referendum ing a transition period that
An analysis of official statis- Spain saw the largest num- in the European Union re- to leave the EU, ending lasts until the end of 2020.q