The Lebanese Red Cross said a fuel tank had exploded inside a Beirut building, killing four people and injuring several others.
It was not immediately clear what caused the blast in Tariq al-Jadida’s western neighborhood on Friday night. The state-run National News Agency said the blast occurred inside the bakery in the basement of the building.
The blast was reportedly heard throughout the city.
Firefighters quickly doused the flames and later rushed down the stairs to help residents trapped in their apartments. Lebanese troops were also stationed in the area and pushed the spectators back.
The Beirut television station said more than 30 people had been injured, with one medical source adding that three children had been burned and hospitalized.
Security sources said the fire broke out in an underground compound where petrol was also present.
# Lebanon – I have been told that a gas tank burst in the Tariq Jidaid area. # Beirut In a residential neighborhood next to the bakery. No casualties have been reported so far.
Friends reported tremors in their homes when it happened.
Lebanese really need a break. pic.twitter.com/JNLlwawgRG
– Luna Safwan – Luna Safwan (Luna Safwan) 9 October October, 2020
Over the past few weeks, the Beirut municipality has been searching for warehouses that could be in violation of the law or pose a threat to residential areas, Governor Marwan Aboud told the Lebanese Al-Jadid television station.
“We feared this type of accident could happen,” Aboud said, adding that about 100 sites were identified as suspicious.
Using mobile ladders, firefighters evacuated people from the bustling district houses.
Friday’s eruption is the latest in a series of catastrophic events in a country plagued by an unprecedented economic crisis and a lack of very basic public services.
A bomb blast near the port of Beirut on August 4 killed at least 203 people, injured at least 6,500 others and caused billions of dollars in damage to parts of the capital. About 1,000,000 tons of ammonium nitrate, an explosive chemical used in fertilizers, exploded. The material was stored in the facility for six years.
It is not yet known what caused the nitrate to erupt but more than two dozen people, many of them port and customs officials, have been detained.
In other parts of Lebanon, forest fires erupted amid a heatwave hitting the Mediterranean country.
Several fires broke out in villages along the Israeli border. The state-run news agency said the fire caused a mine to explode in the Vazz area. No casualties were reported.
In neighboring Syria, a wildfire in the coastal province of Latakia has killed two people and left about 20 others with difficulty breathing, the health ministry said.
