Accident in Beirut

[Snake Plissken]

Looks like a fireworks factory or something holding similarly dangerous material has exploded in Beirut Port.

https://twitter.com/bey_today/status/1290670725129371648

[Patrick Thistle]

There are a lot of videos of this on Twitter and it's shocking.

https://twitter.com/gully_burrows/status/1290683342195765255?s=20

[caja-dglh]

That deep rust color is striking. Also video circulating showing the blast (which was massive and made a mushroom cloud) where, terrifyingly, you can see the cloud moving toward the person and they stay in the window filming.

[ursus arctos]

There has also been another explosion closer to the centre

[anton pulisov]

jaysus, that thing took out a neighbourhood

edit: similar thing happened in the Netherlands 20 years ago:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cwZ6Lou3uN8

[Guy Profumo]

"accident"

The first explosion and fire, that looks like a fireworks factory as reported, because of the smoke and sparky bits you can see?

But the second blast?

I'm not convinced by that.

Munitions dump?

Srcondary missile / bomb aimex at the target?

Dreadful destruction.

[Snake Plissken]

Less prosaically, grain silos next door.

[caja-dglh]

I am somewhat confused how anyone can see an explosion of that size and run with "at least ten feared dead".

[anton pulisov]

Explosion was heard in Cyprus. Which is 200 km away.

[Nefertiti2]

https://twitter.com/timourazhari/status/1290710100697653248?s=20

seen this in a couple of places.

was it fertiliser, or was it explosive?, (there isn't necessarily that much difference)

[Satchmo Distel]

There is a video of bodies that I deeply regret came on to my Twitter feed. I wish I'd avoided it but it was the first post that appeared after clicking Beirut on the trending tab. My sympathies for the victims.

I can't recall ever before seeing an explosion of that size filmed from the ground. Obviously there's the nuclear tests of the 50s but they weren't captured this vividly.

[WOM]

Agree. I'm not sure if it's the right word, but the 'dynamics' of the explosion are unbelievable. That looks very much like I'd imagine the Oklahoma City bombing was like, with ammonium nitrate exploding up against a solid structure.

[Third rate Leszno]

Fuck me. I've never seen anything like that, not even a really big volcanic explosion.

[Eggchaser]

My reaction on seeing that was "Holy fuck!" and rightly so. Dreadful.

It's been likened on Twitter to the 1917 Halifax explosion when a ship laden with high explosives collided with another ship and blew nigh on 2,000 people to Kingdom Come.

[Nocturnal Submission]

That was (genuinely) my first reaction, from what I've read and seen regarding said historical event.

[S. aureus]

Absolutely awful, and hard to get a handle on the scale of this. The Guardian feed has pictures of damage at Beirut airport which is 6 miles away.

[S. aureus]

Why do both Johnson and Raab offer help and support "including to those British nationals" impacted/affected?

[anton pulisov]

And one look at a map of the city tells me that it lies between the airport and the port.

Is there a non-broken window in the entire city?

[Incandenza]

A friend's brother's business was destroyed, but thankfully he was not there at the time and is safe.

[Janik]

I can't recall ever before seeing an explosion of that size filmed from the ground. Obviously there's the nuclear tests of the 50s but they weren't captured this vividly.

The one in China a few years back springs to mind. Though that was more reminiscent of an explosive volcanic eruption than the nuclear blast/mushroom cloud in Beirut.

I suspect the West, Texas fertilizer factory explosion was similarly enormous (it was certainly massively devastating), but AFAIK there were no videos captured of it.

[Janik]

Actually, no, there is at least one video out there of the West, Texas one. It just looks catastrophic. Which, of course, it was.

[Nocturnal Submission]

The ignition of massive amount of ammonium nitrate stored in a warehouse is being blamed as the cause.

[Patrick Thistle]

Saw an insane Trumper comment on Twitter that claiming it was the US hitting Hezbollah and that "POTUS" doesn't let enemies of the USA get away, or insane words to that effect. I'm sure this will be gospel in the MAGA death cult soon.

[Flynnie]

Lebanon’s having a normal one at the moment. This is just gonna make things worse.

[Patrick Thistle]

https://twitter.com/NewsNewsNews999/status/1290770926913626113?s=19