city huge demonstrations against the authorities have been held daily a middle east correspondent paula slayer 1st off source some of the latest overnight disturbances. this is the 4th consecutive night that we've witnessed protests here in front of the parliament building the situation remains as tense as it has been for the last few days as you can see behind me the protesters have started a fire and they throwing rocks and but suppose a from and at the police officers and the army on the other side now the army has been responding with tear gas which claimed the crowd this side surges back what people here are telling me is that they're not satisfied with just the way as a nation of the lebanese prime minister they want to hold hanumant to resign at the same time make one important independent investigation into what happened at the very last they say it's not enough for an internal they have an easy investigation but the government here says that that's what they want to show our issue of sovereignty now the mood is quite volatile it doesn't seem that with the passing of days the protester

destruction caused by the blast let's go live to beirut now and our correspondent laugh always paula slayer paula good to see you could you bring us up to speed on developments please. well within the last half hour the lebanese prime minister has announced his resignation we are expecting him to give a state of the nation address within the next hour and a half an here at martyrs' square which has been the focal point of mass demonstrations from saturday night. people have been arriving at a very different mood at the moment those who've been arriving has been cheering and expressing congratulations as the news breaks of the resignation of the prime minister and indeed his entire cabinet now it's not totally unexpected these protests have been ongoing as i say since saturday calling for the resignation of the government initially we heard from the prime minister that he was willing to call for early elections as a way out of the political crisis he then announced that he stay in power for the 2 months as he brings the major political parties together but of course that was not enough for t

let's cross live now to our middle east correspondent paula slayer in tel aviv who has been following developments over the last number of hours and paula about the death toll just seems to be creeping up and up every time we come back to tell us more about the devastating explosion today in lebanon. well yes as you say about the death toll the latest figures we're receiving all 73 people dead and 3700 people who have been injured and no doc when you cross to me again those figures unfortunately will have climbed yet again we're hearing that a uniform ship was destroyed in this explosion that's been described as the largest blast in lebanon's history now we're hearing from a lebanese security official that about 2700 tons of ammonium nitrate exploded at the beirut airport and that would possibly explain the 2nd explosion which seems to have set off fuel tanks now no confirmation. as of yet to to any of that although this is new hearing such a statement from the emir from the security official until now we have been told by the interior ministry to wait for the official investigation t

find out some more about what happened in beirut we can cross live to a middle east correspondent paula slayer in tel aviv paula this is just hours old of course what occurred but what is known about these tragic developments in lebanon at this stage. well this is an explosion of president and scale an unprecedented damage you have for example the sound of the explosion being heard in cypress which is 234 kilometers away now according to the interior minister we still don't know what caused it and there is an emerging for any fault for people to wait for an investigation to happen we are hearing figures from the health ministry as you mentioned 30 people dead and 3000 injured the red cross say that thousands of people have been injured so we do expect those figures will climb in the coming hours chaos outside the hospitals the hospitals have been turning people away because they simply cannot cope and we know that at least one hospital was was hit during the explosion at the same time this is the biggest explosion in lebanese history with eyewitnesses talking about. a mushroom cloud over the c

middle east correspondent paula slayer live in tel aviv thank you. all right so we're going to a short break here on r.t. international just coming up to 57 minutes past 10 pm we will be back in very shortly with her one story our breaking news from the lebanese capital muss of explosion the aftermath and all that coming up the reaction as well. we go to work you straight home for. something seems wrong. just don't. get to shame how these things become educated and indeed equals betrayal. when so many find themselves worlds apart. she still looks for common ground. i know team no crowd. no shots. actually felt. well strap no arrests. points your thirst for action. how can you explain love i've been to 82 countries i did in 12 but i came here and on those 3 days i just felt it hopes to cover all of it. and he kept pretty isn't it sick show. i made my decision to come here because i felt and you i could build a new life series the. company's name was. i was a free man but i think god decided that this money is no good to be free while pro-style it if a

accountability for the $150.00 plus deaths and utter destruction caused by the blast a correspondent paula slayer reports from the area. situation here is becoming more and more unruly behind you you see the lebanese police they've managed to push protesters all the way back from the parliament building we're now in one of the side streets but there is tear gas and we're going to move forward a little bit because rocks are being thrown in our direction by the protesters now the protesters are still out on the streets despite the fact that earlier the lebanese prime minister resigned he resigned along with his cabinet but what the protesters here are telling me is that they are not going to stop taking to the streets until the whole parliament itself designed so it's possible that scenes like this will continue we've witnessed people being wounded again we've witnessed ambulances ferrying them to and from the scene so a lot of the same scenes unfolding as we've witnessed over the past 2 days this is violence that started on saturday night more than 700 people have been injured one policeman so far

to our we're going to stop what we're doing right now because apparently we're going to go to paula slayer who is standing by to give us more information about the report of this blast that's taking place in beirut paula fill us in. well the latest information we have is 10 people confirmed dead hundreds injured and we have receiving reports of people trapped beneath buildings with emergency services struggling to get those casualty figures on likely to climb in the coming hour as the president has been informed of the situation and national. day of morning has been called for tomorrow eyewitnesses say that there was a massive blast at about 6 o'clock local time that buildings in the vicinity shook that there was a ridge mushroom cloud over the area and a whole lot of fire is now an investigation is underway it's still unclear what actually caused the explosion we are hearing that it could have been an electrical spock the lebanese customs director saying that it was caused by nitrates that were in the warehouse with highly explosive materials both israel and hezbollah have denied involvem

we could not cross to our middle east correspondent paula slayer in tel aviv paulo what more can you tell us about the dell. devastating explosion. when it's not our was off to the blast happened and still there are ambulances on the scene there off airing wounded people to hospitals although the hospitals themselves are reporting that they can no longer handle the volume of people who are being brought to them you mentioned the figures we are receiving figures of 73 people who are confirmed dead and at least 3700 people who have been injured but it is life you that those figures will climb some of the people are still trapped in the rubble emergency services struggling to reach them and the blast has flattened much of the city's port area eyewitnesses report seeing a huge plume a mushroom over the city as well as fires that broke out everywhere and army helicopters are also still on the scene helping to put out those fires now the lebanese president has taken to twitter and he has said that the blast was caused by 2700 tons of ammonium nitrate that he said was stored in a beirut por

accountability for the $150.00 plus deaths and utter destruction caused by the blast our correspondent paula slayer reports from the area. situation here is becoming more and more unruly behind you you see lebanese police they've managed to push protesters all the way back from the parliament building we're now in one of the side streets but there is tear gas and we're going to move forward a little bit because rocks are being thrown in our direction by the protesters now the protesters are still out on the streets despite the fact that earlier the lebanese prime minister resigned he resigned along with his cabinet but what the protesters here are telling me is that they're not going to stop taking to the streets until the whole parliament itself resigns so it's possible that scenes like this will continue we've witnessed people being wounded again we've witnessed ambulances ferrying them to and from the scene so a lot of the same scenes unfolding as we've witnessed over the past 2 days this is violence that started on saturday night more than 700 people have been injured one policeman so far has b

accountability for the $150.00 plus deaths and utter destruction caused by the blast our correspondent paula slayer reports from the area. situation here is becoming more and more unruly behind you you see the lebanese police they've managed to push protesters all the way back from the parliament building we're now in one of the side streets but there is tear gas and we're going to move forward a little bit because rocks are being thrown in our direction by the protesters now the protesters are still out on the streets despite the fact that earlier the lebanese prime minister resigned he resigned along with his cabinet but what the protesters here are telling me is that they're not going to stop taking to the streets until the whole parliament itself designed so it's possible that scenes like this will continue we've witnessed people being wounded again we've witnessed ambulances ferrying them to and from the scene so a lot of the same scenes unfolding as we've witnessed over the past 2 days this is violence that started on saturday night more than 700 people have been injured one policeman so far

cross back to our middle east correspondent paula slayer intel of the truly devastating day for lebanon. truly devastating and as you say the latest figures we have us. even from the health ministry 50 people are confirmed dead and some 2700 are injured but those figures are expected to climb people are still trapped in the rubble emergency workers are desperately trying to get to them hospitals are full they're turning back people they're treating people on the pavements in front of the hospital so total chaos at the hospitals at this moment we are hearing from eyewitnesses that the scene is being referred to as a disaster area we have heard also that the scale of the damage is enormous to give you an indication they are the ports that the sound of the blast was heard as far afield as cyprus which is 234 kilometers away seismologists have said it was of a 4.5 magnitude so unprecedented scale and unprecedented damage because lost in lebanon's history this is what one of the eyewitnesses told us. i saw something flash and i couldn't hear any more i looked at the taxi driver i wanted to m

investigation is concluded ok thank you with the top story the saudis middle east correspondent paula slayer. the. well given the large number of people injured hospitals there are under immense strain facilities already of course dealing with the coronavirus crisis were quickly filled beyond their capacity they issued police for blood donations and for generators simply to keep the lights on there are some 1st hand accounts from people who experienced the shock wave of blast. you might die and all of a sudden we felt a boom everything turned over our hands i was at home with my dad watching t.v. human being under fell over on me the wardrobe also fell on my daughter. and she needs a surgery now. i. was . also. i. mean what halls heard the sound at the airports about our how little things that are possible on that don't you know the just try almost. certainly. something it's close and everything else but. 'd i was moving and we looked around and we still shouted. explosion happened in the densely populated port area of the city and the blast leveled buildings in the surrounding area the shoc

1st responders the got there no hope for them while this is what we're going to talk about next paula slayer as well as the civilian casualties from last week's blasts is going to talk to some of these people there's also the anxiety and grief for the families of the firefighters who are missing they turned up there so soon as you're about to see they were among the 1st responders paula has been hearing about the anguish that their relatives are facing now most of them have been found as they wait for answers. most religions are bearing the loved ones killed in last week's blast one family can only wish for that and as the. 22 months on grandson and cousin a missing all members of the same find. fighting unit that was the 1st to respond now from a group of 10 fighters 4 bodies have been found and 6 are missing the 1st 2 days we were hoping they were live but now we're on the 8th day and now we lost hope now we are hoping that they can bring in from their fingers 40 kilometers from the scene of the blast its impact is still being felt the sinuses race to peace are here as of carter bar and po

very good to talk to you well earlier i spoke to our middle east correspondent paula slayer. what we're at now receiving information that 10 people are confirmed dead but that number is expected to climb and probably climb quite dramatically as we've been told that hundreds have been injured that hospitals are being forced to people away and that emergency teams are desperately trying to get to people who are inside the rubble the president has been briefed about the situation tamara has been declared a national day of mourning in israel and hizbullah have both denied involvement any kind of speculation that there was earlier as to whether this was an israeli strike or his action both of them are denying involvement we are receiving some reports that the 1st explosion might have been caused by an electrical spark we're hearing from the lebanese customs director who says it was caused by nitrates he says it was a warehouse we highly explosives materials are housed and that the initial explosions might have set off fuel tanks and that might have caused that huge secondary blast

correspondent paula slayer is a middle east correspondent for us and rania colleague is an independent journalist who was on the ground there in beirut when the blast occurred and that's where we're going to begin with ron yeah because she was there and she can share with us what's being felt there now and what it was like to be there when it happened runnion take it away. well to be there and happened it was extremely terrifying. like an earthquake and then the windows blew out and then there was a loud explosion and it was very frightening luckily i wasn't injured but a lot of people were i was at the hospital yesterday and it was just complete panic and chaos and people searching for their loved ones. every single building residential commercial restaurants shops hotels nothing was left on touched in beirut there's just broken windows and apartments everywhere it's completely devastating that the damage is widespread in a way like no one's ever seen. and today i mean today the cleanup began people started cleaning up of course there's theories about toxic fumes in the air but you kn

paula thank you so much for that update both paula slayer from the streets of beirut where violence is escalating for another night thank you paula stay safe. let me explosion in beirut has changed many lives in the city forever for one family is only added to their hearts ache they were in hospital dealing with their daughter's cancer when the blast struck the father was killed. forgive me if i did anything made you carry or if i hurt you forgive me i love you i know of you i love you i love you for 2 hours i used to tell him i love you oh you know you are you know i love you i love you these summer months have always been synonymous with joy and celebration for sue his family the birthdays of the children and husband the anniversary of their wedding all of which falls during the sonny season but this year trouble started to loom on the horizon early when her daughter was diagnosed with cancer they called me in the morning they confirmed that it's classical heart i knew that it wasn't informed by that time gemma's immune system had been shot to pieces but hodgkin lymphoma is not a sen

correspondent paula slayer is a middle east correspondent for us and ron your colleague is an independent journalist who was on the ground there in beirut where the blast occurred and that's where we're going to begin with ron you know because she was there and she can share with us what's being felt there now and what it was like to be there when it happened runnion take it away. well to be there and happened it was extremely terrifying. like an earthquake and then the windows blew out and then there was a loud explosion and it was very frightening luckily i wasn't injured but a lot of people were i was at the hospital yesterday and it was just complete panic and chaos and people searching for their loved ones. every single building residential commercial restaurants shops hotels nothing was left untouched in beirut there's just broken windows and apartments everywhere it's completely devastating that the damage is widespread in a way like no one's ever seen. and today i mean today the cleanup began people started cleaning up of course there's theories about toxic fumes in the air but yo