hadi, i wonder if you could stay with us.g our viewers up—to—date with some information which is been derided to us from jeremy bowman, our bbc middle east editor stub a huge explosion has —— editor. i'm discreet to read that out. an explosion... smoke rising above the lebanese capital. some local reports have suggested it was an accident at a fireworks storage warehouse. but with tensions high on the border with israel, many other scenarios are being discussed on social media. the is really military does not comment on allegations in four reports, so that is just to bring you up—to—date with the information given byjeremy bowman, our middle east editor —— jeremy bowen. hadi, when you reflect on this, have you been able to speak to other people? and discuss their thoughts of the explosion? you were saying the smoke looks different than car bombs. is that what other people were saying to you as well when you tried to analyse what might have happened ? when you tried to analyse what might have happened? i called some of my frie

hadi nasrallah lives close to where the blast took place. here's his account. a taxi, it is an area on the coast so i can still see what's going on. i saw the fire but i didn't know there was going to be an explosion. we went inside, and suddenly i lost my hearing. apparently i was too close. so i lost my hearing for a few seconds, i knew something was wrong, and suddenly the glass just shattered all over the car, the cars around us, the stores and buildings, just glass going down all over the building. first impression, i thought it was an explosion. i instantly thought it was an assassination attack, because it usually happens in that area. it was very scary, it was loud, it was very loud. once i looked at the smoke, it wasn't dark and black as we usually witness, because i live in beirut‘s southern suburb and we had a wave of car bombs the past years. so looking at the smoke, i knew it was something else, not a car bomb necessarily. because of the colour of the smoke? it was the colour of the smoke, usually it is dark and black, just going around. this time

african development community have held of virtual meeting on the issue on which has this update from hadi in neighboring zimbabwe the annual site it heads of state meeting ended with leaders say they're going to collectively assist mozambique deal with the violence in the north but they didn't say what that assistance is going to be they speaking nation a fact finding mission could be in the other option is a military intervention it's happened before in the democratic republic of congo. and mozambique back when fighters from the group were raiding villages and towns in so if this time round a military intervention was to happen which countries puts in troops in a way well the money come from some and something is being planned before security reasons leaders can say what that plan is. south africa is easing coronavirus restrictions in an effort to revive its qana me its imposed one of the world's strictest lock downs in march which only saw essential workers being allowed to leave their homes the government's now allowing travel between provinces it's also lifted a ban on the sale of alc

mr goodere i don't know if you are still with us we may have lost the line to hadi there yes we appearto have lost the line we'll try to get mr good to bad but in the meantime let's carrying on millions of lebanese are in poverty while the political east elite are trying to find a new prime minister and government and the devastating explosion of almost 50000 tons of ammonium nitrate nearly 2 weeks ago was the final straw for many buying and smith reports from beirut. like many other lebanese and want to seal has always managed to get by no matter what was thrown at him being conflict or economic crisis but now it's different measure bennett get all mad i walked around 8 kilometers he says as he describes trying to get medical treatment in the aftermath of the port explosion that sent a devastating shockwave through beirut. i think he has and he. can't. and there are new. 70 year old antoine eventually found a hospital to treat the injuries to his head and arm now he relies on free help and volunteers stress that would after the explosion the whole story has changed ok as if the middle

african development community have been holding a meeting focusing on the issue as this update from hadi the annual save a kids of state meeting ended with saying they going to collectively assist mozambique deal with the violence in the north but they didn't say whatever assistance is going to be. a fact finding mission could be in the other option is a military intervention it's happened before in a democratic republic of congo. and mozambique back when fighters from the group were raiding villages and towns in. this time round a military intervention was to happen which country has put away well the money come from some and something is being planned but for security reasons leaders can say what that plan is major general as to morrow is in bobby's foreign affairs and international trade minister and he's joining us on the phone from thank you very much indeed for being with us on. can i tell you i ask you 1st of all what kind of assistance zimbabwe would be willing to offer. but she. situation with these couldn't reach him. and that said the response while you can only be. on the roa

we'rejoined now by leon hady, a former head teacher who now runs online school courses.e been doing towards the end of last term. we have got a lot of different measures in place which will allow the safe movement of children around. with regard to the transport concerns, schools are putting information out on their website and councils are doing the same so website and councils are doing the same so that parents can be assured that there will be a strong set of routines in place to help their child on top of what parents themselves can do. what are parents concerned about? they are really looking to protect themselves and their children. they are wondering what the schedules will be, what will they do in the event of an outbreak, what is going to happen in terms of if my child is ill? lots of questions. the ones which are pinpointed towards transport are really about the logistics. how do we know what time we will get the transport? councils and schools are working together to put on more buses. some councils are encouraging walking buses so that parents can have more c

hadi nasrallah was in a taxi near to the site of the explosion. here's how he described it. fire but i didn't know there was going to be an explosion. we went inside, and suddenly i lost my hearing. apparently i was too close. so i lost my hearing for a few seconds, i knew something was wrong, and suddenly the glassjust shattered all over the car, the cars around us, the stores, the buildings. just glass going down all over the building. first impression, i thought it was an explosion. i instantly thought it was an assassination attack, because usually, it happens in that area. it was very scary, it was loud, it was very loud. but once i looked at the smoke, it wasn't dark and black as we usually witness, because i live in beirut's southern suburb and we had a wave of car bombs the past years. so looking at the smoke, i knew it was something else, not a car bomb necessarily. a little earlier, i spoke to the bbc‘s lina sinjab in beirut. here's how she experienced today's events. well, i'm not too far from the port. just six or seven minutes drive, maybe less if there is no tr