he's. in his car as we speak at the moment simon sorry where are you right now where were you when when this blast happened. my office and docked on but you knew all of their windows were broken and we were trying but own . room or doors where. broken ice was i mean this is something that. i have been there but. it was i was i was with sammy we appear to have lost yes no we've lost we've lost a signal so i mean. when he thinks indeed i mean it will try to get something back again so that he can recount his experience for us once again. you're looking at. downtown beirut at sunset dusk

looking out over the port area and within the last 90 minutes there has been a massive explosion here it is. first a plume of smoke something's gone terribly wrong. well looks appears to be in that in the middle of that plume of smoke that file. explosions maybe 5 works we don't know there are reports that maybe this was a fireworks storage area. and then several seconds later off of this. you get this mushroom cloud. that just. mushrooms out right over the city look at that. glass windows buildings damaged windows shattered. columbus's away the blast felt as far as 10 or 15 kilometers away from the blast site. just

a massive explosion which has caused. so much damage to that to downtown beirut many people injured by flying glass blast injuries the emergency services rushed to the scene. we saw them try to extinguish the flames of the fire that is still burning there in the port area. look at that that's remarkable and you've the camera shaking there as the blast wave hit. the person filming. as i was saying in emergency services rushed to the scene oh this is taken from the sea by the way and look again you see that mushroom cloud that blast wave in the humid air 6 over beirut astonishing astonishing seems. people injured by by flying glass as that their windows caved in reports on child war a told us of her experience

a little earlier when she was sitting at home watching t.v. and the windows blew in. look at that. unbelievable we still don't know what caused that explosion but we know according to lebanon's health minister. that that blast has caused a very high number of injuries these a life picks. i mean it's just to isn't it look at that scene after such a massive explosion. mangled wreckage there. of what were once warehouses in the port area in downtown beirut not far away from that is zeros in a honda who's on the line right now we were talking earlier on to say yes seen who said that he hopes that this would be the straw that will break the country's back well. but right now i am number 4 to. leave. and

they were in a state of shock he could barely speak to me i told him were you in when it happened yes he told me i was inside i said what exactly happened just put his hands up in the air and he was in the face of. a lot of dead and a lot of injured again it's very hard for me to independently confirm this is from somebody a poor example you know with inside who was inside the base with who or when this blast occurred 0 but from what i'm seeing from where i'm standing at the outside support hospital continue continue to arrive more than an hour after that. taking away either dead or wounded and the health minister saying that's hundreds hundreds have been wounded and this massive explosion. in the letter to so you can. weave with the lightest dropped to 70 i'm glad to

say is back with us some of you you were telling us. about way when what you were doing when when this blast hit. yeah so i was in the officer in. the room. and doors were. destroyed and this is something. i'm pleased to impact. the explosion something and i've been given the news of the ruler. who was with. the bomb brains but i have never seen something like that for. all of downtown. for the last 2 hours i'm trying to get home badly i made. some news.

all over the road and blighted hearing. of all that he's and of the bombing i'm sorry but. i can be. quiet or. you know how. files can be filed and can be. i mean this is something beyond reason. i do believe that. windbag. knowledge. to me. in the case that. can be. gotten. from the explosion are calling for peace and to stay in buildings and to close

windows. by means of the. incident of this explosion. creation of the explosion i mean i mean. you have a lot of question i've gone wrong to go into like. 16 audio or video but i hardly need. a pirate work thing because. looking at army an impact of that magnitude of what. can be. acknowledged and you didn't make any. as you say sammy i mean it is very early days to speculate yet we don't know what has caused this this explosion what has led to it. but if there was some

intent involved why now. well i know. you know that they will. you pay to send. more and more isolated more and more. price. pressure. invited you bensington in. iran and. regional power it will be they will not america being people being. sold off and their. money culture it boiled down to one big. mansion we would get on rather. where it.

could actually create a. whole gulf war. and look pretty cool. i mean. but you really thought i mean. the line is trumped up to sonny once again he said he's in his cause taken into at least to get home with a movie so because of a bubble all over the road look at these cars damaged near to. the size of the explosion. we saw. cars that had actually been blown over in the road that runs jason to the food and. dazed looking driver stays bloodied people wandering around on the road. in a state of shock after what had happened not to harm. is on the line now from

beirut she was near the pool when the blast happened not a tell us about your experience. try not to can you hear me tell me what happened to you today. the line is open so much that neither can you hear me it's adrian. yes feel very very faint like and just about hey you. know hang on i will try and stablished the line again and we'll come back to you just a moment honestly a scene is with us again on the line he was some distance away nasa when this this blast happened what you have been a good one how far away from it were you. like 202530 kilometers away and you felt it was an eagle not a far away you felt the blast absolutely absolutely. it sounded

like a bomb and in a nearby heavy i mean not not in not a powerful one of course but it sounded like a bomb took place in a nearby area in the moment and that's 20 5 'd kilometers from may do so you can imagine the the the hallmarks of this and in beirut i've been getting get messages i'm talking to. it's of a radius of 5 kilometers and beirut the homes and offices. of. certain sure. damaged areas just around the area of one or 2 kilometers it looks like really like like an earthquake or a room zone unfortunately that looks very very bad. from the recount because i've been getting some news from colleagues and we've got also the glass shattered over our building and offices. so again i mean just. the

1st you know story about fireworks i think. it's probably not not so true but they still can't tell what happened inside the board. the boat is really devastated i just you know sympathize with people where inside the border area right on that goes from the images and from the messages we're getting this looks like a disaster. zone as quick and i'm not sure how the emergency services are going to cope with the rain for. whatever its cause. this is caused extensive damage to parts of the capital and one of the impacted upon people's. confidence i suppose that they're already. dealing with

a coronavirus outbreak. in lebanon so perhaps people our brands are fearful what do you think this will do to people in the sense this the scale of this disaster you know we we we've always heard you know this. is our resilience and they can keep going to cope with all the sources and the hardship that they get. they go through but whatever is happening in the last year most of all you know this is beyond any any talk of zillions or being you know starting with the financial crisis economic crisis the comic meltdown and people being unemployed this saturday is. 70 or 80 percent of the value diminished every day you know and then the corner vitus locked down and beating and people fearing and another wave of virus cases in the last couple of weeks and then this comes and

this is you know devastating at all levels. and i think you know as your colleague was saying this was in the immediate 'd and this was some kind of as a summation and. something conflicts related because this is what we've been through many many times in the civil war or during all the. banks and was another known throughout the ninety's and 2006 and so on so what people have speculate but this started to feel fearful about what could have been the war and again all these stories and the things you heard at all jets and in the sky that's contributed to this among people i guess both and. you know it's also. the funny thing is that the. economy in lebanon. but this

is a major so often done for the struggling economy in the country at. the main board and the country as devastated as it seems this is also this is going to affect that is economy further and it's going to affect people's. ability to keep going in such extreme hardship and situation that the country is going so. i hope we can go through this one definitely doesn't mean this is beyond any imagination that you could have had you know about the kind here's another one and this is definitely definitely a call for support for lebanon for the coming days. i'm feeling the pain that's going to come into the lebanese and into everybody and its economy and into the confidence of the divisions and live a nice and 11 and even in coming out of this. again we

need to look into the details of this. from from talking to friends and things averages many neighborhoods around this explosion which is in the center of beirut really devastated to get the you know the. broken or the well the windows or maybe some of the offices or homes and so on and and i'm not sure how how we're going to cope with all of this given all the stresses his knees are going through. so for the moment many thanks stay with us on the line. the royces news agency. quoting lebanese security and medical sources saying that at least 10 people are dead following that explosion in beirut a feeling that that is a death toll that will rise in the coming hours and days but for the moment.

lebanese security and medical sources according to the reuters news agency saying that at least 10 people dead we have not a hands a back on the line she was near the port when the blast happened not a can you hear me now you know good. tell me what happened to you i want you to do the way you conduct if it is obvious not that look i'm not what you but i live to be put up or lebanese court. i started hearing bomb. and people were like. that if they stop and they go and i'm a little bit for you and we thought it that it's a clash between the government and the professor knew that all of the establishment than we 'd kind not sure but we heard kind of playing and i was asking people like going on i want to know if i continue or ought to go back so i asked people what's going on they said it's going to is going to be a crack. by the finally said that i spoke of the. higher

i hope the motor and then we heard a the voice. and i i don't remember what happened i mean when i went out of my car i don't know wait for the entrance of one of the building but then i realized that the building was destroyed. then i tried to call my parents i couldn't reach anyone. i could leave my my security group come from my work and they just tell me what happened to know if i say that oh did i go i can't go back home or they said mother thing because you know they knew was that it was going to. have you made them day i don't know what i . thought i'd be alive but it was an explorer young woman and i went on the way. i left and i'm now on the spot where israel has issued

a statement denying any involvement in what happened in beirut today. clearly what happened here you are clearly in a state of in a state of shock but you physically hardware you are ok you would hit by flying glass or flying day breathe. like little bit from the from my car but i'm ok ok i'm ok and how i like how you look at the local how you feeling oh been going for you how are you feeling now that i'm not a little bit. that i can hear me everything how you feeling now obviously if you're still shocked about about that about what has happened yet because i can't believe i'm still alive i can but you know not a thank you so much for recounting what happened to you today really good to talk to you we were she will not 100 who was just a short distance away when the blast happened. i was 0 say to her is is on the line

with us once again she's been talking to us. since well since minutes after this this explosion hits and she's made her way to the port area. which is what you're looking at now the season of this explosion where there is still a fire burning she can't get in that but is on the line right now where are you what's happening. adrian are right at the entrance of beirut ports and ambulances continue to have bodies. which is really it is the case should know how many casualties there are 5 in saudi. health minister says hundreds of people were injured security forces are talking about these. this didn't happen too long ago so information is only trickling in and amid the chaos it's

very hard to confirm numbers but i saw a portable you walk out to the face of chalk i try talking to him he could barely think i told him you know what happened he just looked at me put his hands up and he said explosion when i think what happened he told me i don't know but there there is that and it's on the ground he was in a place of salk the rest of the capital is a state of shock because this explosion was so massive. beirut i was a few kilometers away walking when i heard it. all over and then. when it just pushed me through the crowd the force of the explosions was so massive glass everywhere as i made my way from the commercial district of the capitol grounds of downtown. i thought i could see glass

everywhere damage everywhere. people in in panic people on their phones trying to reach their loved ones trying to find out if everyone is ok because people. casualties were not only inside the port area people outside they were in their cars they were driving close they record is not very far from the city highway that. the entrance to the capital from north *. and it was crowded over question our many people in the street you can hear the siren sounds still. going on in. their minds. or those who were injured so that they can make the hospital. it's still not clear what happened what caused this explosion so many reports out 5 there we're not going to speculate at this point in time some are talking about

something in a storage in a warehouse that calls. when i saw the smoke right out of. this report that the blasts i saw the smoke color was overage it was very strange orange smoke that's what i thought. so it's still not clear adrian what exactly happened what caused the blast but many many people have been injured people who were in their homes from the force of the blast when those things said all the shops in front of people who are destroyed damaged people's livelihoods and in a time like this people are struggling there's a deep economic crisis in the country many of these people this is all they have left. in the car you have. more on the other.

still no word from an official on what exactly happened we're asking if you had a one of these security agencies that lebanon has reported you know guys that there's no court to inspect the quite something explosion so we have to wait to hear from an official on what exactly happened but people are stuck to my sleep disorder are wondering what. it's best to kill. many. including one. that there is a lot of corruption in saving ports it's one of the reforms international community has been demanding from the lebanese authorities ordered this country because this country billions of dollars that it needs to kick start the economy one of the demands of this or not ok but it is to clamp down on tax evasion at the port to clamp down on corruption that support so it's very difficult to say what it's

actually called for the law right now we can only speculate it's just that he said was on the lead this country has seen many many many explosions over the years but it's been quite a 1000 late yesterday political instability political. but it's been a while. since there has been in the close of the initial reaction of everybody wasn't this the beginning of a new spring. political violence people are are concerned people are worried about you know the situation we're going to have to wait they print to see. what lebanese officials are going to say. about what exactly happened and calls the blast but clearly has an effect on the lives of people according. to the word but being that number to rise because i have seen ambulances come and go donkey troll program that our not. say that this happened

what an hour before sundown. a very busy time of the day in terms of the movement of people who were just up the group just going to have a look. at the pictures again of the initial blasts. but it was essentially it was rush hour the city was dead saina. ringback said i could hear me. now that is there on the line but. what i see is pretty chaotic scene where she is the moment she is at the port. which is where this blast happened. there's speculation that this was. a fireworks warehouse that weather was a fire some sort of accident. and that there were a number of explosives obviously stored there it being. a

fireworks factory and. lots of people described hearing noises 1st and then that a huge boom. a blast wave that shook the city blew out windows. at least 4 or 5 kilometers away if you will within a 2 or 3 kilometer radius then. homes suffered extensive damage and these are live pictures now. it is dusk now nightfall in beirut mangled buildings at the at the siege of that explosion at beirut's airport earlier we spoke to journalist on child vora. who lives in beirut these are pictures from a house. which is within that 2 or 3 kilometer radius of the ports.

so powerful blast that. as you can see. incredibly badly damaged suffered minor injuries was in a state of shock when we spoke to had an ankle injury this is what she had to say we were just walking a show on the next break taking a break from work and i hugged jeff hovering in the sky and because the been happening for some time i open the window. and looked outside but i think cannot of blown by i'm sitting on my neck i think i think it's loss of my neck and my ankles i want to seriously injured but a lot of people around me on the street when i was even just going to maybe a christian dominated area a lot of.